Identical twin takes belated rap for killing, but is it true?

On the witness stand at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago on Friday, Karl Smith made a shocking admission.

‘‘I’m here to confess to a crime I committed that he was wrongly accused of,’’ Smith told the court.

‘‘He’’ was not just anyone – it was Smith’s 38-year-old identical twin.

Kevin Dugar, Smith’s twin, has been in custody since 2003.

The men have different last names because Smith changed his surname to his mother’s maiden name.

The stunning courtroom admission, which brought Dugar to tears, was full of emotion, but authorities are far from convinced by the drama display.

Also incarcerated, Smith is serving a 99-year prison sentence for an armed robbery that resulted in a 6-year-old boy being shot in 2008.

He recently appealed that sentence, but it was denied, meaning he has nothing to lose by admitting to his brother’s crime and securing his release from prison.

‘‘He’s got nothing to lose,’’ Assistant State’s Attorney Carol Rogala told Judge Vincent Gaughan, noting the confession didn’t ‘‘fit the independent eyewitness accounts of what happened’’.

Growing up, the men behaved like ‘‘one person’’, sharing socks, shoes and food. Even now, the brothers are so identical-looking they can only be distinguished by their respective prison attire.

By the time the men grew up, they were active gang members who sold drugs and impersonated one another.

‘We was acting as one,’’ Smith told the court. ‘‘Where I was, he was, acting like each other. He pretended to be me, and I pretended to be him.’’

It wasn’t until three years ago, Smith said, that he finally wrote his brother a letter admitting to the crime.

‘‘I have to get it off my chest before it kills me,’’ Smith wrote.

If a judge decides Smith’s story is credible, his brother would be given a new trial for the 13-yearold killing, which took place on Chicago’s North side.

There is one person who has no doubt the men are telling the truth: their mother.

‘‘He wouldn’t lie about that,’’ Judy Dugar, referring to Smith, said.

Karl Smith, right has admitted he committed a murder for which his twin brother Kevin Dugar, left, was jailed.