A Cook County jury on Wednesday convicted a man of killing a Chicago police evidence technician and a second victim in 2010 as the officer investigated a car burglary on the Southeast Side.
The announcement came in a courtroom packed with Chicago police officers and relatives of Officer Michael Flisk. Flisk’s family members began crying as the verdict was read, putting their arms around each other in the second row of courtroom gallery.
Flisk, 46, an evidence technician and father of four, was dusting for prints behind Stephen “Sweet Pea” Peters’ home a day after Thanksgiving in November 2010 when he and Peters were fatally shot. Peters’ beloved customized red Mustang GT convertible had been stripped of its stereo and other gear.
Prosecutors alleged that Timothy Herring Jr. had burglarized Peters’ car and shot both victims when he learned Flisk had found a usable fingerprint. He shot both again when he noticed one of them moving, prosecutors said.
The jury was sequestered overnight and deliberated for more than seven hours before convicting Herring, 24, on charges of first-degree murder and burglary.
Herring faces mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole.
He looked at family members and shook his head as sheriff’s deputies led him back to the lockup.
“I think this case is another example of the senseless violence that we see unfortunately here in Chicago and the easy use of guns to take away two lives,” State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez told reporters after the verdict. “My heart goes out to both families that lost loved ones.”
Neither family would be speaking publicly yet about the case, Alvarez said.
Flisk and Peters, a former Chicago Housing Authority police officer, were armed, but neither had time to draw his weapon.
Herring’s fingerprint was found on a box that held a monitor stolen from Peters’ car, according to prosecutors.
Two cousins of Herring’s as well as three other witnesses testified that he confessed to them about the killings, but Herring’s attorneys argued the cousins decided to turn on an easy target in exchange for a $10,000 cash reward for information on the killings.
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