Jan 4, 2007 10:14 pm US/Central
Suspect Pleads Not Guilty In Burger King Murder
James Ealy Charged With Murder Of Restaurant Manager Mary Hutchison
WAUKEGAN, Ill. (AP) ―
A man charged with seven counts of first-degree murder in the Nov. 27 strangling and stabbing of a Burger King manager pleaded not guilty on Thursday.
James Ealy, 42, who lived in a Lake Villa apartment complex near the Lindenhurst restaurant, is being held without bond in the Lake County Jail.
He entered his plea before Lake County Circuit Judge Fred Foreman, the Chicago Tribune and the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald reported on their Web sites.
Prosecutors say Ealy once worked at Burger King with victim Mary Hutchison, 45, of Trevor, Wis., and allegedly killed her to remove the only witness to his robbery of the restaurant.
Hutchison's family has filed a lawsuit alleging that Burger King and the local restaurant's operator were negligent in hiring Ealy, who had served prison time for rape, unlawful restraint and gun possession.
Foreman declined Thursday to approve a gag order in the case, sought by the public defender's office, but warned both sides to remember ethical restrictions on out-of-court statements. The judge also set an April 2 date for prosecutors to say if they will seek the death penalty.
The case has generated widespread attention, in large part because of an appellate court's decision to overturn Ealy's murder convictions in the 1982 slayings of a pregnant Chicago woman and her three children.
The court ruled that evidence used to convict Ealy in that case was the result of an improper arrest and search. Without the evidence, prosecutors were forced to drop the case.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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