No Retrial For Convicted Killer After Twin's Confession

CHICAGO — A Chicago man whose identical twin brother confessed to the murder he had been convicted of will not be given a new trial in the case. A jury had found Kevin Dugar guilty of first-degree murder in a 2003 gang-related shooting, but Karl Smith, Dugar's twin, came forward and confessed to the killing in 2016.

Judge Vincent Gaughan, however, did not believe Smith's admission, and on Tuesday, he denied Dugar's request for a retrial, according to the Chicago Tribune. In reaching his decision, Gaughan — the presiding judge in the recent murder trial of Chicago police Ofc. Jason Van Dyke — cited the brothers' history of using their similar looks to trick others, the report added.

In 2005, Dugar was convicted in a shooting that killed a rival gang member and wounded another. He was sentenced to 54 years in prison, and he could be released in 2056, when he will be in his late 70s, the Tribune reports.

It wasn't until more than a decade following Dugar's guilty verdict that Smith testified that he was responsible for pulling the trigger in the 2003 shooting.

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"I'm here to confess to a crime I committed that [Dugar] was wrongly accused of," Smith said on the stand in 2016.

Smith's admission should have been enough for Gaughan to grant a new trial, according to Dugar's attorney. But prosecutors argued that Smith only came forward as a way of circumventing his own, unrelated legal troubles. Smith is currently serving a 99-year sentence for attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, aggravated battery to a child, armed robbery and home invasion. His convictions stem from a January 2008 attack on Chicago's West Side involving a 6-year-old boy and his father.

Following Gaughan's decision Tuesday, Dugar was allowed to talk with his family, the Tribune reports. He was than escorted away, and his relatives left the courtroom without speaking.

More via the Chicago Tribune

Kevin Dugar (left) and his twin brother, Karl Smith (Photos via the Illinois Department of Corrections)