(WBBM NEWSRADIO) - A Blue Island man was found not guilty of murder last week and released from the Cook County Jail Saturday, where he spent almost three years.
Christopher Irving had been held without bail in the Cook County Jail since June 2019 and was found not guilty by a judge last week, said his defense attorney Michael Ettinger.
“It doesn’t happen often but it happens. COVID changed everything,” Ettinger said.
Continuances and the suspension of the speedy trial act meant Irving had to wait to argue that he shot Francisco Avila-Murillo in self-defense.
In June 2019 Irving allegedly shot Avila-Murillo after the pair argued about whose truck could fit through a narrow alley near Vincennes Road and Collins Street. Irving testified he shot after Murillo waved a foot-long claw hammer at him.
Ettinger said Irving, the owner of a landscape company, did have a valid FOID card and concealed carry license.
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