Judge orders new trial in murder case

URBANA, Ill. (AP) — A Champaign County judge has ruled that a Champaign man should get a new trial because prosecutors didn’t correct the record when two witnesses lied to a jury.

The (Champaign) News-Gazette reports that Judge Harry Clem ruled that 24-year-old Demarco Taylor is entitled to a new trial. Taylor is due back in court Sept. 22 with his public defender. Taylor was convicted in 2011 of first-degree murder for his part in the December 2008 death of 34-year-old James Ellis, who was gunned down while with his wife and children in Champaign. Taylor received a 40-year sentence.

The judge ruled that the two jailhouse witnesses lied to jurors when they told them prosecutors hadn’t promised them any consideration in their own cases in return for the testimony against Taylor.