LaVale Burt falsely confessed to the murder of a little boy who had been killed accidentally by his mother
LaVale Burt (Photo: Loren Santow)
LaVale Burt, 19, falsely confessed to the 1985 murder of 2-year-old Charles Gregory after a prolonged interrogation by Chicago police.
After the child's death, police discovered gunpowder residue on the hands of the child's mother, who gave conflicting accounts of what happened. Initially, she said she did not see what happened. After she became the prime suspect, however, she changed her story, saying she saw a young man fire shots at two girls, miss them and hit her son. She identified the girls as Gloria and Linda Leatherberry, who lived nearby.
Both girls initially denied the story, but Linda Leatherberry finally said that the mother's story was true — that she and Gloria had been fired at — and she identified Burt as the person who fired the shots.
Police fed Burt facts
After getting her to say that, police developed a complex theory of Burt's motive for shooting at the girls. Their brother, Robert Leatherberry, had been wounded slightly earlier in the day in a shooting that police suspected was gang-related. Officers theorized that Burt had been involved in that shooting and had shot at the girls to discourage them from linking him to that crime. In his confession, Burt ultimately said precisely that.
After he had been convicted of the child's murder in 1986, Burt was awaiting sentencing when the grandmother of the deceased child contacted the judge who had tried the case. The grandmother revealed that she had found a .22-caliber pistol, which she suspected had caused her grandson's death, in her daughter's possession.
After the daughter acknowledged that her son's death in fact had been accidental, the judge vacated Burt's conviction.
