Illinois Appellate Court
Criminal Court
Postconviction Petitions
(Cour opinion corrected 1/10/11.) Defendant was convicted of gang-related shooting and murder; at trial, court had denied Defendant's request for continuance after the close of the State's evidence in order to locate and produce a witness who had not been subpoenaed for that day. Defendant filed post-conviction petition which was dismissed after a third-stage evidentiary hearing at which the previously missing witness testified, and at which a State witness recanted his trial testimony. Court's ruling, which was based almost exclusively on finding that both witnesses were not credible, was not against manifest weight of evidence. Witnesses had provided different and contradictory versions of events of day of shooting, at different times. (GARCIA and CAHILL, concurring.)