Off Duty: The Crime

Summary

Podcast Summary: Today in Focus – Off Duty: The Crime

Podcast: Today in Focus
Episode: Off Duty: The Crime (Guardian Investigates/Series Premiere)
Host: Melissa Segura (with contributions from Helen Pidd)
Original Air Date: March 21, 2026

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Overview

This gripping episode kicks off the "Off Duty" miniseries by Guardian Investigates, diving into the harrowing story of the murder of Chicago police officer Clifton Lewis and the tangled, years-long hunt for justice that followed. Host Melissa Segura uses intimate interviews, family testimony, and investigative detail to raise pointed questions about police and prosecutorial conduct, wrongful convictions, and the ripple effects of institutional failure within America’s criminal legal system. At its heart, the episode interrogates the conviction of Alexander Villa, a man many—including his family—insist is innocent, and exposes how truth can be sidelined when the system itself is on trial.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Crime and Immediate Aftermath

• Clifton Lewis’ Murder (00:37)

  • On December 29, 2011, Officer Clifton Lewis was killed during a robbery while working off-duty as a security guard at the M&M Mini Mart, Chicago's west side.
  • The murder triggered a massive show of force and pressure from the Chicago Police Department (CPD)—over 200 officers gathered at the hospital, and the department dedicated all resources to the case.

• Early Investigation and Arrests (01:21–03:55)

  • Initial suspicion fell on the local Four Corner Hustlers gang, but quickly shifted to four men affiliated with the Spanish Cobras after numerous tips.
  • Despite intense interrogation and recanted confessions, police focused on these suspects, ignoring lack of evidence and contrary accounts.

• Critical Reflection

  • Segura emphasizes that systemic failures can cascade: “We tend to think that a great injustice requires some grand plan or some comic book villain. But what happens when that’s not the story at all? When instead every single part of the criminal legal system … did not do its job?” (03:21)
  • The episode paints a portrait of “institutional inertia,” with authorities doubling down instead of admitting possible error.

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Family Perspective and the Trial

• Family’s Ordeal (04:58–07:47)

  • Alexander Villa (“Alex”) maintains his innocence from day one. His family, especially siblings Stephen, Marisol, and Melissa, become his staunchest advocates.
  • Emotional courtroom scenes feature overwhelming police presence, intimidation, and deep familial distress:
    • “There was 100 cops in the courtroom… It was almost like Gotham City, like you had the Joker on trial here.” —Stephen (05:57)
    • After the guilty verdict, Stephen collapses in the courtroom, sobbing: “He didn’t do this, he didn’t do this.” (07:25)
  • The family is crushed—they know a conviction for killing a cop likely means life in prison.

• Systemic Barriers Post-Conviction (08:00–14:42)

  • Marisol, a probation officer, races to secure trial transcripts fearing important records could be lost.
  • Sisters recount being shut out by law clinics and defense lawyers, who refuse to touch a “cop killing” case.
    • “It almost felt like we were being judged without even getting to know us or just the whole situation.” —Melissa (13:28)
    • The family is nearly bankrupt and worn out by repeated legal setbacks.

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Understanding Alex and the Context

• Neighborhood and Upbringing (09:20–11:43)

  • The Villa siblings describe growing up in violence-plagued Hermosa/Humboldt Park, Chicago, where gang affiliation was both a survival tactic and a community norm.
    • Stephen: “It's almost like that's what you’re supposed to do, because it's almost like depending on what side you’re on dictates what you will be.” (10:11)
  • Both Stephen and Alex joined the Spanish Cobras as teens, experiencing police hostility and harassment.

• Complexity of Guilt and Innocence

  • Segura discloses Alex’s criminal record, including a hit-and-run conviction after Officer Lewis’ murder. She challenges the trope of the perfect, wholly innocent “wrongly accused,” emphasizing messy realities:
    • “We want nice, bright lines between offenders and victims, but the reality is so much messier.” (11:43)
  • Alex’s criminal past becomes another barrier in seeking post-conviction help.

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A New Legal Strategy

• Jennifer Blagg’s Entry (15:01–22:09)

  • With appeal options dwindling, Alex requests the family contact attorney Jennifer Blagg—well-known for defending high-profile police officers, including Jason Van Dyke (who killed Laquan McDonald).
  • The sisters are deeply uneasy about hiring a defense attorney with such a background:
    • “I didn’t feel comfortable about that.” —Marisol (16:40)
    • “She's not right. She's not the one.” —Melissa (22:09)
  • Blagg herself is frank: “I always take what family says to me with a grain of salt… there's sometimes things that family just don’t know.” (19:41)

• Winning Over Blagg

  • The sisters lay out their case for Alex’s innocence:
    • The Mini Mart wasn’t intruded gang territory for Cobras.
    • Confessions emerged after marathon interrogations.
    • Surveillance shows the shooter vaulting over a counter with his left hand—Alex had a disabling injury.
      • “His fingers, they get stiff… It's not like what a normal person… How you would hold a spoon.” —Melissa (20:46)
    • Alex had an alibi argument at the time of the murder.

• Reluctant Acceptance

  • Despite doubts and friendship with one of the prosecutors, Blagg is moved by family persistence and gaps in the case timeline:
    • “When you have a huge gap in time between the crime and somebody being charged… That always is, as the kids say, sus. There’s always shenanigans when there’s a cop murder.” —Jennifer Blagg (22:37)

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Uncovering Key Evidence

• Case File Review & Turning Point (23:02–24:53)
  • Blagg’s associate, Eric Bisbee, initially overwhelmed by massive files and damning evidence.
  • Breakthrough comes from interrogation footage: after detectives leave, suspect Melvin DeYoung whispers to the camera: “It was a lie.” (24:27)
    • He recants his accusation against Alex, which had formed a pillar of the case against him.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We tend to think that a great injustice requires some grand plan or some comic book villain. But what happens when that's not the story at all?” —Melissa Segura (03:21)
• “There was 100 cops in the courtroom… It was almost like Gotham City, like you had the Joker on trial.” —Stephen (05:57)
• “We want nice, bright lines between offenders and victims, but the reality is so much messier.” —Melissa Segura (11:43)
• “It's almost like that's what you’re supposed to do, because… depending on what side you’re on dictates what you will be.” —Stephen (10:11)
• On justice system double-downs: “When people with power refused to admit that they could be wrong and doubled down again and again. When the pursuit of truth takes a backseat to what they really might think of as the pursuit of justice.” —Melissa Segura (03:32)
• “She’s not right. She’s not the one.” —Melissa (22:09), on attorney Jennifer Blagg

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:37 — Murder of Officer Lewis and launch of manhunt
• 04:58 — Alexander Villa’s trial and family testimony
• 09:20 — Villa family’s background and environment
• 13:14 — Legal clinics and private attorneys refuse the case
• 15:01 — Alex’s idea to hire Jennifer Blagg
• 17:29 — Jennifer Blagg’s background and entry to the case
• 19:41 — First meeting: Sisters present innocence case
• 23:02 — Eric Bisbee reviews case files; discovers recantation
• 24:27 — Melvin DeYoung’s whispered confession: “It was a lie.”

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Tone & Style

The episode navigates between investigative rigor and intimate family storytelling. Melissa Segura foregrounds her skepticism and humanity as a reporter. The family’s voices are raw, urgent, and heartbroken; the legal analysis is sharp but accessible; the system is portrayed as both grinding and deeply personal. There’s humor—especially in attorney Blagg’s Arkansas stories—and pathos, as in the descriptions of courtroom intimidation and the relentless push for justice.

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Conclusion

"Off Duty: The Crime" powerfully sets up the Off Duty series by blending systemic critique with heartbreaking personal narrative. The episode asks listeners to question both the simplicity of guilt and the machinery of criminal justice, while leaving audiences with a cliffhanger—a convicted man’s fate, the dogged advocacy of two sisters, and the revelation that truth, in this case, might finally surface.

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For the rest of the series, subscribe to Guardian Investigates. Today in Focus returns Monday.

Transcript

[Melissa Segura]

This is the Guardian.

[Helen]

Hi, it's Helen here. We have something a little bit different for you today, a weekend bonus if you like. It's the first episode of Off Duty, a new series from Guardian Investigates. It tells the story about how the brutal murder of a Chicago cop spiraled into a 12 year hunt for justice. You can find all of the rest of the series on the dedicated Guardian Investigates feed. I hope you enjoy it today in Focus. We'll be back as usual on Monday morning.

[Melissa Segura]

On the evening of December 29, 2011, Clifton Lewis showed up for his shift at the M and M Mini Mart on Chicago's west side. He worked days as an officer in the Chicago Police Department, but was moonlighting as a security guard to pick up a little extra cash. He was chit chatting behind the counter with the store owner and a clerk around 8:30pm when two men walked into the M and M. They shot Lewis several times, then took off with his

[Jennifer Blagg]

gun and police start.

[Melissa Segura]

Seconds after the gunman left, a bystander called 911. Lewis was rushed to the hospital.

[Melissa (sister)]

More than 200 police officers gathered in the parking lot of Strozier Hospital where Lewis was pronounced dead.

[Melissa Segura]

He had been on the force for eight years, a black officer who lived in the neighborhood he served, and he'd gotten engaged four days earlier. On Christmas morning, police launched a massive manhunt for Lewis's killer. The brass ordered that police work only this case until it was solved. Tips poured in and many pointed to the four corner Hustlers, the gang that controlled the area around the Mini mart. A week later, police had their suspects, but they weren't hustlers. They were four men affiliated with a gang called the Spanish Cobras. For hours under intense police questioning, they said they didn't do it. But that didn't seem to matter. The Chicago Police Department decided these were the guys responsible for the brutal murder of Officer Clifton Lewis. In the years that follow, confessions would be made and recanted. Evidence missing and exposed. The case against three of the men will fall apart. But one, Alexander Villa, would remain behind bars in a system that seemed determined to keep him there at all costs. From the guardian, I'm melissa segura. This is off duty. Episode one, the crime. I first heard the name Alex Villa in 2019. I'd been reporting on a series of wrongful convictions in Chicago, and his sister wrote me shortly after he'd been convicted of killing Officer Lewis. But my editor at the time wasn't interested in another wrongful conviction story. Heard one, heard them all, except I couldn't let it go. It tugged at my brain. And eventually I realized why. It's because we tend to think that a great injustice requires some grand plan or some comic book villain. But what happens when that's not the story at all? When instead every single part of the criminal legal system, police officers, their supervisors, forensics, prosecutors, did not do its job? When people with power refused to admit that they could be wrong and doubled down again and again. When the pursuit of truth takes a backseat to what they really might think of as the pursuit of justice. Institutions are supposed to have safeguards to make sure that doesn't happen. This is the story of what happens when they fail. Those decisions ripple out. They reinforce each other and magnify. And only when you look back at them from the perspective of years can you see how much destruction they've caused. Alex Villa was tried for the murder of Clifton Lewis in February 2019, more than seven years after Lewis was killed. From the beginning, Alex swore he didn't do it. He never changed his story in the years that followed.

[Stephen (Alex's brother)]

I thought my brother had the case beat the whole time. Like my brother could have done many things. He's definitely not no angel, but he definitely wouldn't do that. I would bet everything that I have on that.

[Melissa Segura]

That's Alex's older brother, Stephen. They grew up in Chicago in a big Puerto Rican family who all showed up for Alex's trial. Stephen, Alex's two older sisters, his young daughter and son, his mother and his elderly grandmother. The trial was a massive event, especially for the Chicago Police Department. One of their own had been killed, and they had finally gotten their man. For four days, Alex's family arrived to a wall of Chicago police officers staring them down.

[Stephen (Alex's brother)]

The whole front of Cook County Jail would be lined up with police cars. The whole front in the middle of the street every court day.

[Melissa Segura]

Once they got inside, the tension was even worse. It was like Officer Lewis had been killed yesterday.

[Stephen (Alex's brother)]

Like there was 100 cops in the courtroom. Not letting my 80 year old grandma sit down at court, it was just. It was crazy. It was almost like Gotham City. Like you had the joker on trial here.

[Melissa Segura]

In the courtroom, the prosecution laid out their case. They showed surveillance footage from the night of the murder. A man jumping over the counter at the mini mart, pointing his gun and firing at Clifton Lewis. That man was Alex. They said they had a confession from one of Alex's alleged accomplices and statements from three people who said Alex told him he's the one who committed the murder. Alex's Sister Marisol told me the whole time, she felt like the fix was in. She said it felt like prosecutors would openly taunt Alex in the courtroom.

[Marisol (Alex's sister)]

Looking at their body language, right? Like, even the prosecutors, like, ha, ha ha. You're going away, you know?

[Melissa Segura]

After four days of testimony, the jury reached a verdict in under four hours. Guilty. Marisol caught Alex's eye as he was led away in handcuffs.

[Marisol (Alex's sister)]

I specifically looked at Alex and was telling him, don't worry. You're gonna come out of this, you know, like. And he just had, like, this blank face. And then I was looking at the rest of my family. You know, his daughter was there. His son, like, my other brother Steven. He, like, fell to the floor and started crying in the middle of court.

[Melissa Segura]

Loudly.

[Marisol (Alex's sister)]

Was like, he didn't do this. He didn't do this.

[Stephen (Alex's brother)]

They escorted me out like, eight county sheriffs. I was just all over the place.

[Melissa Segura]

The sentence would come later, but Alex's siblings knew that being convicted of killing a cop meant their brother was spending the rest of his life in prison. He was 30 years old, and he was never coming home.

[Stephen (Alex's brother)]

My mom has heart failure. His daughters are getting big. My grandma's getting older. There's a possibility that he's gonna lose people that he loves all his life, and he's not even gonn or to see it, and he's sitting in jail for something he didn't do.

[Melissa Segura]

Marisol knew better than to wallow or to wait. She worked as a probation officer in the same courthouse where Alex was tried, and so she knew the first thing they'd need for an appeal was a copy of the trial transcripts. Even before they left the courtroom, she put her sister Melissa to work.

[Melissa (sister)]

She's like, make sure you call the court reporter's office and request the trial transcripts. Because things mysteriously disappear, and especially a high profile, a case like this.

[Melissa Segura]

Melissa did something else. Right after Alex was convicted, she reached out to me. Like I said, I couldn't write about the case at the time, but years later, I found out the case was still moving through the courts. So I reached out to Melissa, and then I went to visit her and Marisol in the home they share in the Hermosa neighborhood where they grew up. Alex is the youngest, six years younger than Marisol and four years behind Melissa.

[Melissa (sister)]

He's always been, you know, the baby of the house and grandma's favorite, and. And I say he was the favorite one jokingly, but he's. He's truly loved since he was very little.

[Marisol (Alex's sister)]

My mom was so protective of him like he was her world is her world.

[Melissa Segura]

Their parents split up when they were kids, and they all moved with their mom to the city's northwest side. There were eight or so gangs fighting for turf back then in Hermosa and neighboring Humboldt Park. Gunfire was often the soundtrack of their neighborhood.

[Marisol (Alex's sister)]

There was even a time I was sitting outside the front steps of my home and there was a drive by happening and I had to hide underneath the stairs and duck there with my friends.

[Melissa Segura]

The girls hid from the violence. Melissa poured herself into motherhood after getting pregnant at 15. Marisol escaped into school, getting herself into college, then a master's degree in social work. It was different for boys. Stephen told me you were either in a gang or you were its target. He joined the Spanish Cobras when he was in middle school.

[Stephen (Alex's brother)]

Our father was in a gang. Our uncles were in gangs. So it wasn't that we were trying to be in gangs. It's almost like it's second nature to kind of be in gangs. When you're in Chicago, specifically in my area as well, you know, it's almost like you're not doing nothing bad. It's almost like that's what you're supposed to do, because it's almost like depending on what side you're on dictates what you will be.

[Melissa Segura]

Alex joined the Cobra's two at age 13. Steven says they've both been having run ins with the cops ever since.

[Stephen (Alex's brother)]

I mean, when we're young, the things the police used to do to us was just crazy. Like, they'll drop us off in different gang neighborhoods, they'll mace us, they'll beat us up, pin drugs on us. They'll lie and say we did things that we didn't do. I mean, we grew up fighting that all our lives.

[Melissa Segura]

Alex was arrested dozens of times over the years for everything from possession of marijuana to robbery. But those charges never stuck, which, as Steven sees it, made him even more of a target.

[Stephen (Alex's brother)]

Like, my brother was a well known guy and he's been around in this area a long time, you know, and he's a charmer. He's got the girls, you know, he's always dressed nice, he's got a car, you know, my brother, he's just well known, well known. And the police hated him all his life. That Police Department, 25th District, couldn't stand us.

[Melissa Segura]

Listen, there's something I need to tell you up front. And it doesn't really have anything to do with the story I'm telling you, not directly, but I don't want to Paint a false picture of Alex as some kind of angel like his brother says he wasn't. Case in point, Alex did get one conviction, and it's a serious one. He killed someone in a hit and run 11 months after officer Lewis's murder. And I have to say, part of me wishes I could tell you a neater story of a man who does no wrong, accused of a crime he says he didn't commit. That's the movie narrative. The Shawshank Redemption, the Fugitive. We want nice, bright lines between offenders and victims, but the reality is so much messier. Most people who commit crimes are also the victims of crimes. It's a finding that holds true across the globe. Point being, when Alex went hunting for a lawyer to handle his appeal, he had two strikes against him. The first was the hit and run. But the bigger problem was that he had now been convicted of murdering a cop. Thanks to her job and probation, Maricel knew about law clinics that specialized in representing the wrongfully convicted. She says she contacted all of them, and she says they all turned her away.

[Marisol (Alex's sister)]

And I was like, what? This is what you specialize? That's what you do? Why wouldn't you want this?

[Melissa Segura]

You know, so did at least 10 private defense lawyers. Melissa says, the moment, you know, you

[Melissa (sister)]

even mentioned, okay, this is a murder, but this is not just a murder. It is a murder of a police officer. It almost felt like. Like we were being judged without even getting to know us or just the whole situation.

[Melissa Segura]

For a year, the sisters got nowhere. The moment they mentioned their brother's name. The Spanish Cobras. The murder of a police officer. It was like they could see the gate come down right before their eyes. And the courts wouldn't wait forever for Alex to find a new lawyer. They felt like they were running out of time.

[Melissa (sister)]

We were, like, out of money almost. We kind of exhausted our options at that point.

[Melissa Segura]

They paid Alex's first lawyer a lot of money, but they both felt like he never cared enough about their brother's defense. During the trial, he called only one witness to the stand. The sisters tracked down a second attorney for Alex's appeal, but they felt like he was worse than their original lawyer. In one embarrassing incident, he got Alex's name wrong and referred to him as Miguel.

[Marisol (Alex's sister)]

Like the prosecutors would even laugh at court as he was presenting his defense and all of that. They were not at all shook or anything by him.

[Melissa (sister)]

The first one failed us. The second one was just absolutely lousy.

[Marisol (Alex's sister)]

There were times we felt sick physically. Like, exhausted. Yeah. And we still pushed ourselves or we pushed each other like it was a big, big rollercoaster ride.

[Melissa Segura]

Then in February 2020, Alex called them with an idea. The window to argue for a new trial was closing in jail. He'd read some legal filings in another Chicago case. They were thorough, well argued, and all of the names seemed to be correct. And he thought, now this is the kind of attorney I need. That attorney's name was Jennifer Blagg. Marisol and Melissa typed Jennifer's name into Google. And when they saw the results, they were like, what is Alex thinking? Why her? Jennifer had represented high profile cops in murder cases. She had successfully defended an off duty officer charged with killing an unarmed black woman. Then she represented a white police officer named Jason Van Dyke. If that name sounds familiar, that's because Van Dyke was the cop who killed a 17 year old black boy named Laquan McDonald. It was a horrific case that received national attention, both because of the shooting. Van Dyke fired 16 shots at the boy. And because it took over a year and a lawsuit for the CPD to release the dash cam video of the incident.

[Helen]

16 shots.

[Melissa Segura]

16 shots. 16 shots. The case and the allegations of a cover up prompted mass protests throughout the city. 14, 15, 16. 16 shots.

[Jennifer Blagg]

16.

[Melissa Segura]

How could someone who defended cops turn around and defend their brother? Someone accused of killing an officer?

[Marisol (Alex's sister)]

I didn't feel comfortable about that.

[Melissa Segura]

Neither did I. They knew Alex was getting desperate, but still this woman really.

[Melissa (sister)]

But he was a bit adamant and of course he was frustrated and he's like, go talk to her. Let's see. He was very optimistic about her.

[Melissa Segura]

In March 2020, Marisol and Melissa drove to Blagg's office. The woman who greeted them was not what they expected. When Melissa and Marisol met her. Jennifer Blagg wasn't dressed up, she wasn't wearing makeup. She definitely didn't sound like some slick city lawyer. She grew up in a town called Hamburg, Arkansas 2,400. She just might be Hamburg's second most

[Jennifer Blagg]

notable export to Chicago, home of Scottie Pippen. This is claim to fame. We lived in a concrete house that was across the cotton field from my grandparents. We had a pet cow named Daisy that I kept in touch with my cow until my mom gave her to a farmer and he promised not to kill the cow. Anyway, that's a whole nother story.

[Melissa Segura]

Jennifer was a tomboy growing up. She played basketball, hated dresses and wanted to leave her small town for as long as she can remember. But after college, she settled down in Arkansas and worked in hr. Still, she couldn't Shake the feeling that she was meant to be doing something else, somewhere else. So she worked full time and went to law school at night.

[Jennifer Blagg]

I got a job at first selling pantyhose at Dillard's. I am not a fashionista. I do not like wearing dresses. I do not like wearing pantyhose. It's absolutely hilarious that I would be selling pantyhose and giving women recommendations on if they should use ultra sheer or sheer. You know, I mean, it's just a hoot.

[Melissa Segura]

Jennifer eventually walked across the stage in her cap and gown. No pantyhose, of course. To collect her law degree, She moved to Chicago and took on some high profile cases. She's proud of all of them. The wrongful conviction she's overturned, and the police officer she's defended. Even though the Jason Van Dyke case was really controversial, it wasn't just the Villa sisters who were skeptical about that one. Jennifer's friends were, too. She didn't represent Van Dyke at trial, but took on his case when she saw the sentence the prosecution was asking for. Bligh wasn't apologetic when talking to the sisters about the case.

[Jennifer Blagg]

They wanted every shot of the bullet to count towards his sentence and it to be a consecutive sentence. If he got sentenced that way, every defendant after him would be sentenced that way. And that is. That's not how the law should work.

[Melissa Segura]

Marisol and Melissa were still skeptical, but they were there because Alex asked them to be. So they put aside their own misgivings and told Jennifer that they were certain their brother was innocent, full stop, and they needed someone good to represent him.

[Jennifer Blagg]

I always take what family says to me with a grain of salt. Not that they would be lying or anything like that, but there's sometimes things that family just don't know.

[Marisol (Alex's sister)]

She's like, well, what makes him innocent? Anybody can say, you know, especially if your family, that your loved one is innocent. What makes him innocent?

[Melissa Segura]

For the next two hours, the sisters laid out their reasoning. First, the Eminem Mini Mart is not in Cobra territory. No Cobra would travel to another gang's turf to rob a store. Second, the confessions from Alex's alleged accomplices. Those happened after days of grueling interrogations, the sister said. Then there was the surveillance tape from the Mini Mart. The man who leaps over the counter and starts shooting Officer Lewis, he puts his left hand on the counter to vault over it. That couldn't be Alex, they said. Alex was shot in his left hand six months before the crime, and it never fully healed. No way he could put his Weight on it to jump over a counter like that.

[Melissa (sister)]

He has permanent nerve damage to the point where his fingers, they get stiff even when he would eat, the way he would hold a spoon. It's not like what a normal person. Right. How you would hold a spoon. It wasn't. He can't do that.

[Melissa Segura]

Also, they said it wasn't just his hand that made the idea of him jumping over the counter implausible.

[Melissa (sister)]

Alex is a chubby dude. He's always been chubby. He's short chubby, you know, has a hand injury. I mean, let's be logical here.

[Melissa Segura]

The other thing was, Alex had presented an alibi that he was arguing with his girlfriend over text messages at the time of the murder. Prosecutors shot that down, arguing he could have just sent a quick emoji as he entered the store. Speaking of the prosecutors, the sisters told Jennifer that they didn't trust them. Their names were Andrew Varga and Nancy Aducy. Jennifer stopped them right there and said, wait, you need to understand that I'm friends with Nancy Aducy. We've worked together on a lot of things, and I like her. And right there, the sister's doubts about Jennifer came rushing back.

[Marisol (Alex's sister)]

I was cringing at my seat. I was like, I want to leave, you know? Or like, I don't like her.

[Melissa Segura]

They said their goodbyes, and when Alex called to see how the meeting went, they didn't hold back. She's not right. They told him. She's not the one. Alex told him he didn't care if she wanted to take on his case. Then he wanted her as his lawyer. Back in her office, Jennifer told her associate attorney, a guy named Eric Bisbee, about her meeting with the sisters.

[Jennifer Blagg]

From what they told me, it just seemed impossible that Alex would have done this. And then when you have a huge gap in time between, like, the crime and somebody being charged and you're. That always is, as the kids say, sus. There's always shenanigans when there's a cop murder.

[Melissa Segura]

Plus, she said she liked Marisol and Melissa and she felt bad for them, which, Eric pointed out, is not a good reason to take on a case.

[Jennifer Blagg]

And then Eric was like, I don't think we should take it. I was like, well, I might have already said we would, you know?

[Melissa Segura]

So, against his better judgment, Eric went ahead and requested the case file from Alex's previous lawyer.

[Eric Bisbee]

It was just massive. I remember I showed up one day, and we have five banker boxes full of documents on the back porch. And I'm just thinking, how are we going to do this? I mean, it was a lot.

[Melissa Segura]

He started with the trial transcripts, and right away he thought, this is even worse than I imagined. They've got confessions of alleged accomplices. They've got three other people saying that Alex told them that he killed Officer Lewis.

[Eric Bisbee]

I looked at the summary. I'm like, Jennifer's lost her mind.

[Melissa Segura]

He watched one police interrogation after another, recordings of the confessions made by Alex's alleged accomplices, the men who were supposedly at the M and M during the robbery. And nothing in any of them gave him a sliver of hope. Eventually, he got to one of a guy named Melvin DeYoung. And it's the same story Eric heard on all the other tapes. Then Alex was the shooter. He's thinking, this case is open and shut. And then just as he's about to stop the video, he says, something catches his attention. The detectives who've been interrogating Melvin leave the room, but they don't stop recording. And Melvin, once he's alone, he looks up at the camera and he whispers, it was a lie. Eric looks back into Melvin's face, his eyes staring right into the lens, and Melvin says it again. It was a lie. This season on Off Duty.

[Melissa (sister)]

So there was, like, a bunch of guys that had attacked him that knew his location. Who would have known that information?

[Eric Bisbee]

He says, I had a brain eating amoeba.

[Stephen (Alex's brother)]

Next thing you know, they got the beating on my dog. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

[Melissa (sister)]

You know I'm lying to you because

[Stephen (Alex's brother)]

I told you from the beginning that

[Melissa Segura]

I had nothing to do with this.

[Jennifer Blagg]

There's nothing on this. Are you effing kidding me?

[Stephen (Alex's brother)]

Every phase of this experience is something being taken from you.

[Jennifer Blagg]

You have to be a fucking idiot to do this job and win, right? Like, you've got to have some blind faith. I was like, bring it.

[Melissa Segura]

The Guardian made repeated attempts to speak with the Chicago Police Department. The department did not have anyone available to answer our questions, a spokesperson wrote in an email in court documents. Officers deny any misconduct. Former prosecutors Nancy Adduces and Andy Varga, along with legal representatives for each party, did not respond to multiple interview requests or a detailed list of questions. Prosecutors denied any misconduct in court papers. No officers or prosecutors have been accused of wrongdoing by officials in connection with this case. This is the Guardian.