Judge rejects new trial for Steger man who killed boy in DUI
BY LAUREN FITZPATRICK Sun-Times Media lfitzpatrick@suntimes.com January 11, 2012 12:42PM
Cecil Conner
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Updated: January 11, 2012 3:38PM
Cecil Conner, the Steger man convicted almost a year ago of killing his girlfriend’s son in a drunken driving crash, will not get a new trial, a Will County judge ruled Wednesday.
Judge Edward Burmila Wednesday denied the request for a new trial and set a Jan. 20 sentencing date for the 24-year-old. Conner faces up to 14 years in prison for causing the May 10, 2010, crash that killed 5-year-old Michael Langford Jr.
The request centered around recordings of jailhouse phone calls between Conner and his girlfriend, Kathie LaFond, Michael’s mother and a key witness at Conner’s trial. Burmila Wednesday ordered that the tapes not be destroyed for any reason unless he’s first notified.
In November, the Illinois Supreme Court sided with Will County prosecutors, denying the release of the recordings. The high court ordered Burmila to reverse his Sept. 27 decision forcing prosecutors to hand over the recordings to Conner’s attorneys.
A Will County jury found Conner guilty of aggravated drunken driving for the crash that killed Michael.
LaFond was driving Conner home from a party early that morning — with Michael in the back seat — when a Chicago Heights police officer stopped her and arrested her for a driving on a suspended license, leaving Conner to take the wheel.
Conner later slammed the car into a tree on Steger road near Carpenter Street, and Michael died at the scene. Conner’s blood alcohol level was later determined to be 0.208, more than 2-1/2 times the legal limit.
Burmila ruled in September that the tapes should have been given to Conner’s attorney, Jeff Tomczak, before Conner’s trial. Tomczak was particularly interested in conversations between Conner and LaFond.
Prosecutors had argued the recordings weren’t evidence that needed to be turned over to Tomczak under criminal trial rules, saying neither they nor the lead detective in Conner’s case had listened to the tapes.
They said Conner’s phone calls were only accessed two times — after his trial — when they were picked at random for a sheriff’s department training session.
They also called Burmila’s ruling unworkable because Will County inmates make some 1,200 calls a day, and forcing prosecutors to turn them over in Conner’s case could lead other inmates to demand tapes of their calls.
A jail official testified Conner made 2,350 phone calls between May 2010 and June 1, 2011.
State’s Attorney Jim Glasgow appealed Burmila’s September ruling, and when an appellate court sided with Tomczak, he took the issue to the Supreme Court.
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