After nearly 13 years of secrecy, a Chicago resident, Karl Smith, has confessed to a murder, which his identical twin brother, Kevin Dugar went to prison for.
Smith copped to the 2003 murder in a courtroom last week, as his brother most likely cried tears of relief, according to the Chicago Tribune. “I’m here to confess to a crime I committed that he was wrongly accused of,” Smith testified. Dugar was found guilty of first-degree murder back in 2005, for a shooting in Chicago that killed one man identified as Antwan Carter and wounded another. Smith told the courtroom that he was impersonating his brother at the time he committed the crime. “We was acting as one. Where [we] was, acting like each other. He pretended to be me, and I pretended to be him,” the 38-year-old added.
During his sworn testimony, Smith also noted that he had come clean in a letter he penned to his brother in 2013. “I have to get it off my chest before it kills me,” he wrote in the letter. “So I’ll just come clean and pray you can forgive me. I’m the one who shot and killed those two Black Stones on Sheridan that night.” As imagined, his first confession went unanswered, but after Smith attempted for a second time to get his twin’s attention, Dugar directed him to his attorney. Smith ended up signing a sworn statement in 2014, in which he confessed everything. When asked why he didn’t come clean at the time of his brother’s trial, he claimed he didn’t “have the strength to come forward,” and thought it was the police department’s responsibility to right his wrongs, according to the Tribune.
Despite dodging one bullet, Smith has been serving a 99-year sentence for an armed home invasion, which led to the death of a 6-year-old boy, according to reports. As for Dugar, a judge has yet to decide whether he will be granted a new trial or a pardon. The twins’ mother, Judy Dugar came forward in hopes of freeing at least one of her sons. “I hope Kevin will get out. I hope he change his whole life around,” Judy told the Tribune crying. “He got to.”
SOURCE: upcoming100.com
