{"id":3771,"date":"2024-02-18T13:50:39","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T20:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/?p=3771"},"modified":"2024-02-18T13:54:20","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T20:54:20","slug":"february-9-2024-news-article-the-pantagraph-mclean-county-judge-denies-new-trial-for-barton-mcneil-murder-case-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/?p=3771","title":{"rendered":"February 9, 2024 News Article The Pantagraph \u2013 McLean County judge denies new trial for Barton McNeil murder case appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Kelsey Watznauer    February 9, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BLOOMINGTON \u2014 New evidence presented in Barton McNeil\u2019s challenge to his 1999 murder conviction was not enough to convince a McLean County judge to give him a new trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a written ruling issued last week, Judge William Yoder denied McNeil\u2019s petition for post-conviction relief, following a third-stage hearing held in November<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNeil, 64, is serving a 100-year prison sentence, having been convicted in the suffocation death of his 3-year-old daughter, Christina McNeil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He has maintained his innocence and is now represented by Karl Leonard and Lauren Myerscough-Mueller of the Exoneration Project and John Hanlon, director of the Illinois Innocence Project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNeil has alleged his ex-girlfriend, Misook Nowlin, killed his daughter. Nowlin is serving 55 years in prison, convicted of killing her mother-in-law, Linda Tyda, in 2011. She has also sought a new trial<\/strong><\/a> for her conviction, but it was denied in August by McLean County Judge Scott Kording<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hanlon said McNeil was “disappointed” in the ruling, and the legal team plans to appeal Yoder’s decision in the 4th District Appellate Court in Springfield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to the ruling, McNeil said Yoder\u2019s decision made the judge \u201ca party to three murders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a former McLean County state\u2019s attorney, he fought to maintain my wrongful conviction in the service of Misook Nowlin\u2019s getaway. In so doing, 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 he said in an audio recording provided to The Pantagraph by his family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the November hearing, McNeil’s attorneys presented evidence they said implicated Nowlin in the girl\u2019s death. She was one of three witnesses called during the November hearing by McNeil\u2019s legal team, who say Nowlin told her then-husband Don Wang she had killed Christina. Wang could not be found to testify, the attorneys said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nowlin invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during much of her testimony, but she stated she did not kill Christina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nowlin’s other daughter, Michelle Spencer, and Spencer’s stepmother, Dawn Nowlin, also testified and had submitted affidavits in 2013 saying Wang told them Nowlin confessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Assistant State\u2019s Attorney Brad Rigdon\u2019s witness, former Bloomington detective Steven Fanelli, testified about his interview with Wang conducted in February 2012, in which Wang told him Nowlin had now confessed to killing Christina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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