{"id":3765,"date":"2024-02-18T13:38:31","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T20:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/?p=3765"},"modified":"2024-02-18T13:41:30","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T20:41:30","slug":"february-9th-news-article-npr-wglt-judge-denies-barton-mcneils-petition-for-a-new-trial-in-1998-bloomington-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/?p=3765","title":{"rendered":"February 9, 2024 News Article NPR WGLT \u2013 Judge denies Barton McNeil\u2019s petition for a new trial in 1998 Bloomington murder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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WGLT | By <\/strong>Edith Brady-Lunny<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published February 9, 2024 at 12:24 PM CST<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New evidence in the murder case that sent Barton McNeil<\/a> to prison for life in the death of his 3-year-old daughter would likely be inadmissible at a second trial, a McLean County judge has ruled in denying McNeil\u2019s petition to bring the case before a new jury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge William Yoder acknowledged that assertions from two women that they were told McNeil\u2019s former girlfriend, Misook Nowlin, confessed to killing the child constitutes newly discovered evidence in the 1998 murder case. Nowlin was later convicted of murder in the strangulation death of her mother-in-law, Linda Tyda. The cases were featured in WGLT’s 2018 podcast Suspect Convictions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two women who testified in November 2023 about the alleged confession are Nowlin\u2019s daughter, Michelle Spencer, and Dawn Nowlin, who is married to Nowlin\u2019s first husband, Andy Nowlin. The confession was allegedly made by Don Wang, Misook Nowlin\u2019s husband at the time Tyda was murdered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his decision, Yoder said, \u201cThe evidence of the assertions by Michelle Spencer and Dawn Nowlin do constitute newly discovered evidence. However, the testimony would almost certainly not be admissible at a retrial as the defendant would first have to call Don Wang to testify that Misook Nowlin never confessed to him and then call Michelle Spencer and Dawn Nowlin to attempt to impeach Don Wang\u2019s testimony. Such testimony by Don Wang would not damage the defendant\u2019s case but would not fail to support its theory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yoder concluded the testimony of the two women \u201cis not conclusive evidence, that considered along with the other trial evidence, would probably lead to a different result at a retrial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The defense theory is that Misook Nowlin killed Christina McNeil during an overnight stay at her father\u2019s apartment in Bloomington. McNeil has long argued that Nowlin was seeking revenge after he and his former girlfriend ended their relationship hours before the child was believed to have died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A similar theory was used by the state in the Tyda case. Prosecutors argued Nowlin killed her mother-in-law after Nowlin became aware that her marriage to Don Wang was headed for divorce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a written statement issued on Friday, McNeil said, \u201cJudge Yoder\u2019s latest ruling has made himself a party to three murders. As a former McLean County state\u2019s attorney, he fought to maintain my wrongful conviction in the service of Misook Nowlin\u2019s child-killing getaway. In doing so, he facilitated Nowlin\u2019s later killing of Linda Tyda. And as a judge, he is determined to unjustly take my own life despite his awareness of my innocence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yoder previously denied McNeil\u2019s claim that a jury should hear that Nowlin\u2019s DNA was found on the child\u2019s bedsheets. \u201cDNA doesn\u2019t lie,\u201d said McNeil, adding the forensic material identified years after his conviction \u201ccan only be the direct result of her direct involvement in my daughter\u2019s murder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNeil family renewed their support on Friday for a statewide conviction integrity unit to review criminal convictions and innocence claims. \u201cBarton McNeil should be this unit\u2019s very first case,\u201d said the family statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McLean County State’s Attorney Erika Reynolds said in a statement Friday that “the latest order is yet another example of a reviewing court confirming the jury\u2019s findings. The original investigation and every follow-up, including multiple interviews conducted in 2012 by the Bloomington Police Department to explore the defendant\u2019s latest assertions, have supported that Barton McNeil murdered his daughter.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An appeal by the defense is expected to be filed with the Fourth District Appellate Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WGLT | By Edith Brady-Lunny Published February 9, 2024 at 12:24 PM CST New evidence in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[7,31,6,22],"class_list":["post-3765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-news-articles","tag-barton-mcneil","tag-christina-mcneil","tag-misook-nowlin","tag-misook-wang"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image-1.png",975,672,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image-1-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image-1-300x207.png",300,207,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image-1-768x529.png",640,441,true],"large":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image-1.png",640,441,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image-1.png",975,672,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image-1.png",975,672,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image-1.png",975,672,false],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/freebart.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/image-1-540x340.png",540,340,true]},"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\/3765","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=3765"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3770,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3765\/revisions\/3770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}