Lawyer wants new trial for man convicted of killing Steger boy in DUI crash

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Cecil Conner

Updated: May 25, 2011 10:59AM

The defense attorney for a Steger man convicted of killing his girlfriend’s son in a drunken-driving accident said Wednesday that Cecil Conner deserves a new trial because authorities have been taping his phone conversations at the Will County Jail.

Jeff Tomczak said prosecutors never disclosed the recordings of phone calls to him during Conner’s trial process.

“This is a very significant discovery violation,” Tomczak said Wednesday after a hearing in Will County Court.

But Will County sheriff’s spokesman Ken Kaupas said phone conversations have been taped at the jail since at least 2006, and he said signs throughout the facility say those conversations are monitored and recorded.

Chuck Pelkie, spokesman for Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, said prosecutors just received notice of Tomczak’s motion and have to review it before commenting further.

“We’re prepared to go forward with sentencing,” Pelkie said.

A Will County jury found Conner, 23, guilty in February of two counts of aggravated drunken driving for causing the May 10, 2010 crash in Steger that killed his girlfriend’s 5-year-old son, Michael Langford Jr. Conner argued at trial he was simply following orders from a Chicago Heights police officer when he attempted to drive the boy home.

Tomczak said thousands of hours of Conner’s conversations were recorded, including 50 to 100 conversations between Conner and his girlfriend, Kathie LaFond.

On the night of Conner’s arrest, Chicago Heights officer Chris Felicetti arrested LaFond, who was driving Conner home from a party, for driving with a suspended license. Conner’s attorneys said the officer threatened to arrest Conner if he didn’t drive her red Chevrolet Cavalier home after she was arrested. LaFond testified Conner was “trashed,” and a blood test determined his blood alcohol level was 0.208, more than twice the legal limit.

Felicetti testified Conner seemed sober enough to drive. Forty minutes after the traffic stop, though, Conner slammed the car into a tree on Steger Road near Carpenter Street, killing the boy.

He now faces up to 14 years in prison.

A hearing on Tomczak’s motion for a new trial for Conner is scheduled for next Wednesday.