Murder case witness recants on selling drugs to prosecutor
Convicted killer seeking new trial based on charge
CLEAN & CHECK TUNE-UP ON FURNACE OR BOILER
A witness on Thursday backed off earlier claims that he sold drugs to a DuPage County prosecutor investigating the grisly 1995 murder of a pregnant woman and her two young children in Addison.
Dwight Pruitt testified Thursday at an unusual federal court hearing that he made those statements in depositions only because he was given cash and a free trip.
“The money was good,” said Pruitt.
Pruitt testified at a hearing for convicted killer Fedell Caffey, who is seeking a new trial for his role in the bloody slaying of Debra Evans, who was shot to death, then had her abdomen sliced open and her unborn son stolen. Two of her children, 10-year-old Samantha and 7-year-old Joshua, were stabbed to death.
Caffey, his girlfriend Jacqueline Williams, and her cousin, Levern Ward, were all convicted of the murders, which authorities said occurred because Williams wanted a baby and had told Caffey she was pregnant. Ward was the father of Evans’ unborn child, who survived the brutal attack.
Now serving a life sentence, the 39-year-old Caffey wants a new trial because he contends investigators im- properly focused on him as a suspect after another person interviewed by authorities threatened to implicate a prosecutor in illegal drug use.
Pruitt, who testified against Caffey during his murder trial, said he lied in later statements to private investigators when he said he sold drugs to a prosecutor involved in the Evans case.
Pruitt said he was paid $100 on several occasions and given a free trip to Washington after making those claims.
Pruitt said he named the prosecutor as a customer because a friend he later was jailed with told him he had sold drugs to the law officer.
The hearing before U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly continues Friday.