'He should not have been on the street'

Suspected Burger King killer was convicted of four murders two decades ago but freed on appeal

Two decades before he allegedly murdered Mary Hutchison in a suburban Burger King, James Ealy was convicted of murdering a pregnant woman and three children on Chicago's West Side.

But an appellate court threw out his conviction -- and left prosecutors no evidence to try him again.

"He should not have been on the street," said Brian Telander, who prosecuted Ealy as an assistant Cook County state's attorney. "He was an evil, evil person."

Telander, 54, said he felt "sick" when he heard Ealy had allegedly killed again. "I'm a defense lawyer now, and obviously I recognize that the law has to be followed," he said. "But this was a person that there was just no doubt he was guilty."

Last week, a co-worker discovered Hutchison's body inside a Burger King in Lindenhurst northeast of Waukegan. Hutchison, 45, was found next to an open, empty safe. She had been strangled with the bow tie from her uniform, prosecutors said.

On Saturday, a Lake County judge ordered Ealy held without bond after prosecutors charged him with the murder. Prosecutors said Ealy, who formerly had worked at the Burger King as a maintenance man, killed Hutchison after robbing the restaurant.

Ealy "made incriminating statements" during videotaped questioning, Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller said. And a search of his Lake Villa apartment yielded currency linked to the Burger King robbery, as well as clothes he purportedly wore during the murder.

For Telander, hearing how Hutchison had been strangled brought back memories -- horrible memories -- of the Parker case.

On Aug. 16, 1982, police discovered the bodies of Christine Parkerd three children -- Mary Ann, Cora and Jontae -- in a seventh-floor apartment in the Rockwell Gardens housing project. The victims had been strangled, and Jontae, a 3-year-old boy, had been raped. Christine Parker was pregnant.

Ealy, then 17, had been dating 15-year-old Mary Ann Parker. Police questioned him and searched his bedroom, where they found evidence linking him to the crime, including a length of khaki material similar to what was found embedded in the neck of one victim.

During 18 hours of interrogation -- during which Ealy claimed he was deprived of sleep and food -- police say Ealy confessed to the murders. A jury found him guilty, but the Illinois appellate court reversed the verdict.

In an opinion written by Justice James C. Murray, and joined by fellow justices Francis Lorenz and R. Eugene Pincham, the court found Chicago Police lacked probable cause when they took Ealy into custody.

Since the confession and searches of his bedroom stemmed from the faulty arrest, that evidence should have been excluded from trial, Murray wrote. Without that evidence, prosecutors decided not to retry the case.

Cook County Judge Thomas Maloney, who had presided over Ealy's trial, expressed horror when the decision came down.

"Maloney said from the bench that the appellate court should take out billboards warning the people of Chicago that this monster had been let loose," Telander said.

Maloney was convicted in 1993 of taking bribes to fix cases. Murray died in 1999. Lorenz and Pincham could not be reached for comment.

Grant Nothnagle, Hutchison's ex-husband, said he was "stunned" to learn Ealy had gone free in the 1982 case. "I just hope at this point the system does not allow another loophole like that," he said.

At the time of his arrest in 1982, Ealy was on bond for a rape committed in the same Rockwell Gardens building, Telander said. Catholic Charities bailed him out. The prestigious law firm Jenner & Block represented Ealy on his appeal in the Parker case.

Contributing: Lisa Donovan and Dan Rozek