{"id":4241,"date":"2025-04-20T00:24:39","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T06:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/?p=4241"},"modified":"2025-04-20T00:24:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T06:24:40","slug":"2025-april-18-news-article-wglt-npr-radio-appellate-court-denies-ex-girlfriends-dna-and-crimes-in-barton-mcneils-request-for-a-new-trial-in-1998-bloomington-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/?p=4241","title":{"rendered":"2025 April 18 NEWS ARTICLE WGLT NPR RADIO \u2013 Appellate court denies ex-girlfriend’s DNA and crimes in Barton McNeil’s request for a new trial in 1998 Bloomington murder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Emily Bollinger \/ WGLT – Barton McNeil’s defense attorney Karl Leonard delivers oral arguments to Justice Amy Lannerd, left, and Peter Cavanagh at an Illinois Appellate Court hearing March 25, 2025 at Illinois State University<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WGLT | By <\/strong>Lauren Warnecke<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published April 19, 2025 at 11:59 AM CDT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An appeals court has denied Barton McNeil\u2019s request to reconsider evidence and grant him a new trial in a 1998 Bloomington murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNeil was convicted of first-degree murder for the smothering death of his 3-year-old daughter, Christina. He has long maintained innocence, believing his ex-girlfriend Misook Nowlin to be the killer. She has denied that<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a decision<\/a> released Friday, the Fourth District Appellate Court upheld Judge William Yoder\u2019s ruling dismissing evidence McNeil\u2019s attorneys said could exonerate their client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During oral arguments<\/a> last month at Illinois State University, defense attorney Karl Leonard said forensic evidence implicating Nowlin were not considered during McNeil\u2019s 1999 bench trial. Nowlin has since been convicted for the 2011 choking death of her 70-year-old mother-in-law, Lynda Tyda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The appellate justices agreed with the trial court\u2019s assessment, denying McNeil\u2019s postconviction petition for a new trial and affirming the decision to not consider DNA evidence, Nowlin\u2019s criminal history and an expert report contradicting suspicion that Christina had been sexually assaulted. That report, they said, should have been produced during the original trial or prior appeals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNeil\u2019s attorneys asserted the presence of Nowlin\u2019s DNA in Christina\u2019s bedding support their claim that Nowlin was in the apartment that night, saying McNeil has a receipt proving the sheets were washed. Hair, the justices said, could not conclusively be linked to Nowlin or prove McNeil’s innocence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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David Proeber \/ The Pantagraph (Pool) – Barton McNeil was convicted of the 1998 suffocation death of his daughter, 3-year-old Christina McNeil, in Bloomington. He’s long maintained his innocence.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDNA evidence that does not match a defendant\u2019s DNA does not automatically exonerate the defendant,\u201d the judges wrote. \u201cEven if we were to conclude the DNA evidence from the bed sheet and the mtDNA<\/a> hair evidence were newly discovered evidence, when considered with the trial evidence, they were not of such conclusive character that they would probably change the result on retrial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The justices also said Lynda Tyda and Christina McNeil\u2019s deaths were too dissimilar to introduce Nowlin\u2019s conviction into evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUltimately, [Nowlin] murdered Tyda in a separate offense, under factually distinct circumstances,\u201d they wrote, \u201c13 years after the murder of C.M. [Christina McNeil]. Therefore, this evidence is not material and does not support defendant\u2019s claim of actual innocence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The appellate court further agreed with the trial court that written affidavits from relatives of Misook Nowlin claiming she admitted to killing Christina were new and material evidence, but likely inadmissible on retrial and unlikely to reverse McNeil\u2019s conviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement, McNeil\u2019s cousin, Chris Ross, chastised the court\u2019s decision and timing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo surprise this ruling gets dropped late afternoon on the Friday preceding Easter weekend, the slowest news day,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In separate emails to the media, Ross questioned whether appellate court justices who have heard previous appeals on McNeil\u2019s case should have recused themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a travesty of justice involving cronyism at its worst now on full display for everyone to see,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A statement attributed to McNeil was shared on FreeBart.org’s Facebook page<\/a>: “Innocence does not matter in McLean County, and if you are a child-murdering serial killer the local criminal justice system will accommodate you at the expense of the innocent,” it read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNeil may next appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Emily Bollinger \/ WGLT – Barton McNeil’s defense attorney Karl Leonard delivers oral arguments to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[252,7,248,254,109,6,57,22],"class_list":["post-4241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-news-articles","tag-4th-appellate-court","tag-barton-mcneil","tag-james-knecht","tag-justice-knecht","tag-mclean-county","tag-misook-nowlin","tag-misook-nowlin-wang","tag-misook-wang"],"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\/4241","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=4241"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4247,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4241\/revisions\/4247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freebart.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}