Teen Pleads Not Guilty To Killing Cop, Former CHA Officer
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A teenager accused of killing a Chicago Police evidence technician and a former Chicago Housing Authority cop last November pleaded not guilty to murder charges Thursday.
Timothy Herring Jr, 19, is accused of killing veteran police officer and evidence technician Michael Flisk and former CHA officer Stephen Peters on Nov. 26, after breaking into Peters' Mustang inside a Southeast Side garage.
Herring appeared before Judge Mary Brosnahan in Cook County Criminal Court on Thursday and pleaded not guilty to two counts of first degree murder.
Free on parole at the time of the murders, Herring Jr., a convicted armed robber, was determined not to go back to prison, authorities said.
So when the 19-year-old snuck back to the scene of a burglary he'd committed hours earlier and overheard Flisk say "I've got a good fingerprint," he acted in the "coldest of blood," law enforcement sources said.
Armed with a handgun and wearing an electronic tracking bracelet on his ankle, Herring crept up on Flisk and Peters in the alley in the 8100 block of South Burnham Avenue and shot both men dead, prosecutors allege.
Asst. State's Atty. John Dillon said Herring saw the men at the garage where Peters' Mustang had been broken into. Flisk was processing the scene.
Herring allegedly approached and said he knew who committed the crime, Dillon said.
At that point, Peters told Herring "it didn't matter as they had recovered fingerprints and would find out who did it," a court document states.
Herring allegedly walked away, then came back and shot the men once each. Herring, who lives across the alley from the garage, then started to move the garbage cans where he had stashed some of the items stolen from the car, prosecutors said.
When he noticed one of the men was still moving, "The defendant then went up to the victims and shot each one a second time in the head," the document states.
Prosecutors said Herring's fingerprint was recovered from stolen property found in one of the garbage cans. Officials also matched four shell casings found at the scene to a 9-mm handguns used in an earlier attempted murder — the victim of which helped police find Herring, officials said.
Dillon said a witness saw Herring standing over a pool of blood, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, and also saw him moving the garbage cans.
He allegedly told a witness months ago that he wanted "to hit the victim for his sounds" — referring to his desire to rob the stereo from Peters' Mustang.
A co-defendant, Timothy Willis, also appeared in court Thursday and filed a motion for substitution of the judge, Simonton said. Willis will appear for arraignment Friday.
Willis allegedly stashed Herring's gun, some stereo wires from the Mustang and locks of Herring's hair — cut off to disguise his appearance after the murders, prosecutors said.
Herring is scheduled for a status hearing Feb. 16, Simonton said.
(The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.)
