The baiduhai Media Group’s Lake Country News-Sun reports: Allegations of witness tampering have risen in the retrial of two men charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with a 2007 North Chicago home invasion.
With all jurors in the rare, double-jury retrial excused from the courtroom, prosecutors on Wednesday afternoon played audiotapes of phone calls made earlier this week at Lake County Jail. The calls were between defendant William Fillyaw and community activist Ralph Peterson, who was described as working as a private investigator in the case.
Prosecutors allege Fillyaw and Peterson were strategizing ways to weaken a witness’s testimony. The men used vague language, which officials compared to talking in code, but prosecutors said it was clear Fillyaw was instructing Peterson.
“I’m getting ready to deliver exactly what I have to deliver. I’m getting ready to give you what you need,” Peterson told Fillyaw, 37, during one of the calls played in court. “My word to you, that will be taken care of.”
Additional coded exchanges included “putting more juice” into their efforts and “she’s got to change her weather.”
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Peterson is the cousin of the witness’s father, according to testimony, and prosecutors said he attended a Jan. 2 meeting between the witness, her father and defense attorneys James Schwarzbach and Lawrence Wade.
Read the full story from the News-Sun.