{"id":3529,"date":"2023-06-17T09:05:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-17T15:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/?p=3529"},"modified":"2023-06-17T09:05:02","modified_gmt":"2023-06-17T15:05:02","slug":"2023-june-6-news-article-wglt-national-public-radio-judge-allows-misook-nowlins-dcfs-records-as-evidence-in-barton-mcneil-murder-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/?p=3529","title":{"rendered":"2023 June 6 News Article \u2013 WGLT National Public Radio \u2013\u00a0Judge allows Misook Nowlin\u2019s DCFS records as evidence in Barton McNeil murder case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WGLT | By\u00a0Edith Brady-Lunny<\/a> Click here for WGLT news article link<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published\u00a0June 6, 2023 at 5:18 PM CDT <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Child welfare records related to child abuse by Misook Nowlin can be used by Barton McNeil in his challenge to his 1998 murder conviction in his daughter’s death, a judge ruled Tuesday at a hearing in McLean County court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNeil, 63, smiled and waved to a large audience of supporters as he was escorted from the courtroom after the 20-minute hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNeil was a cook at a Bloomington restaurant in June 1998 when his 3-year-old daughter Christina was found unresponsive in her bed at his apartment following an overnight stay. Hours after her body was removed, he summoned police back to his home on Croxton Avenue to examine what he thought may be evidence of a break-in, and the intentional killing of his daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNeil suggested police talk to Nowlin, his former girlfriend, who was accused in a pending court case of physically abusing him. Nowlin\u2019s history of violence against McNeil and her own daughter, Michelle Nowlin, were not considered at McNeil\u2019s bench trial and sentencing hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2011, Nowlin was charged with strangling her mother-in-law, Linda Tyda, after luring the 70-year-old victim to Bloomington from her home near Chicago on the pretense of hiring her as a translator. Nowlin is serving 55 years in prison for Tyda\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Tuesday\u2019s hearing, McNeil\u2019s lawyers with the Exoneration Project and the Illinois Innocence Project asked that Nowlin\u2019s history of child abuse be used to support an affidavit by Michelle Nowlin that her mother beat her. The state records could also support defense arguments that Nowlin threatened to kill her daughter by suffocation, the same method authorities believe was used to kill Christina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two other affidavits that claim Nowlin confessed to two people that she killed Christina also are considered evidence discovered since McNeil\u2019s trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dawn Nowlin, wife of Nowlin\u2019s former husband Andy Nowlin, and the suspect\u2019s daughter both allege in signed statements that Don Wang relayed Misook Nowlin\u2019s confession to them in conversations after Tyda\u2019s funeral. Wang was Nowlin\u2019s husband at the time Tyda was murdered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In making the ruling, judge William Yoder made it clear that DCFS statements are as far as the defense can go in their efforts to support Michelle Nowlin\u2019s affidavit. Other claims about Nowlin\u2019s misconduct will not be considered at a future hearing on potential new evidence, said Yoder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a ruling last year, Yoder dismissed multiple areas of potential new evidence developed by the defense, except for the alleged confessions and the DCFS records. The mosaic of other forensic evidence pointing to McNeil\u2019s ex-girlfriend as a viable suspect did not meet the legal standard for new evidence, the judge previously ruled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a news conference after the hearing, McNeil\u2019s cousin, Chris Ross, called on the Illinois Attorney General\u2019s office to appoint a special prosecutor to bring evidence against Nowlin to a grand jury on murder charges in Christina\u2019s death. The state\u2019s top prosecutor and the governor have an obligation to prosecute Nowlin, said Ross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMisook Nowlin killed Christina McNeil and should be charged with murder,\u201d said Ross, standing outside the Law and Justice Center, flanked by McNeil supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The family\u2019s demand for a grand jury investigation was independent of McNeil\u2019s lawyers, who did not attend the news conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A July hearing is scheduled to review the results of the DCFS records request and to set a date for the evidentiary hearing on potential new evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Edith Brady-Lunny<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edith began her career as a reporter with The DeWitt County Observer, a weekly newspaper in Clinton. From 2007 to June 2019, Edith covered crime and legal issues for The Pantagraph, a daily newspaper in Bloomington, Illinois. She previously worked as a correspondent for The Pantagraph covering courts and local government issues in central Illinois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See stories by Edith Brady-Lunny<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WGLT | By\u00a0Edith Brady-Lunny Click here for WGLT news article link Published\u00a0June 6, 2023 at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[7,31,148,162,183,184,26,109,6,57,22,106,104],"class_list":["post-3529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-news-articles","tag-barton-mcneil","tag-christina-mcneil","tag-erika-reynolds","tag-governor-pritzker","tag-illinois-attorney-general","tag-illinois-governor","tag-john-hanlon","tag-mclean-county","tag-misook-nowlin","tag-misook-nowlin-wang","tag-misook-wang","tag-stephanie-wong","tag-teena-griffin"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","covernews-featured":"","covernews-medium":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"chris.ross","author_link":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/?author=3"},"category_info":"Current News Articles<\/a>","tag_info":"Current News Articles","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3531,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3529\/revisions\/3531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}