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Conviction upheld in ’99 murder State’s attorney won’t honor plea deal negotiated under Campbell before election By JILLIAN DUCHNOWSKI jduchnowski@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – The man convicted of murdering another man near Northern Illinois University’s campus in 1999 would be free if DeKalb County State’s Attorney Richard Schmack had honored a second-degree murder plea agreement his predecessor approved. Yaphet Davis, however, is headed back to prison after Schmack successfully rescinded the offer and a judge denied Davis’ petition claiming his previous attorneys made serious mistakes during his trial and
subsequent appeals. Court records show that in the final hours of former State’s Attorney Clay Campbell’s administration, then-prosecutor Julie Trevarthen reaffirmed a deal made months earlier but that hadn’t been finalized in open court. Yaphet Davis Originally she had told defense attorneys the deal couldn’t be entered until November, but her boss, Campbell, lost the Nov. 6 election to Schmack. Campbell did not return calls Fri-
day seeking comment, but Schmack suggested the timing of the negotiations under Campbell’s administration had political undertones. “Given the timeframe and the statements in the public defender’s motion to enforce the plea agreement, I think the timing of the implementation may have had a connection to the date of the election,” Schmack said. Under the deal, Davis’ first-degree murder conviction would be overturned and Davis would be sentenced to 20 years in prison for second-degree murder, court records show. Unlike first-degree murder
On the Web To read prosecutors’ explanation of why they should not have to honor a plea agreement for Yaphet Davis in his 1999 murder case, visit Daily-Chronicle.com.
sentences, second-degree murder sentences are eligible for good-behavior credit, so David would have been obligated to serve 10 years of the 20-year sentence, Schmack said. He would have been released immediately, having served 14 years in prison.
WEIGHING A WEDDING BUDGET
Davis, now 37, was sentenced to 32 years in prison for shooting Eddie Hall of Chicago in the back Oct. 9, 1999, in the 800 block of Crane Drive in DeKalb. Davis, then 23, told authorities that Hall and three of Hall’s friends kidnapped him, beat him and held him hostage for ransom, court records show. Hall claimed the ransom was short and moved to attack Davis with a knife when someone handed Davis a gun and Hall started running, court records show. Hall fled, and Davis shot him, court records show.
See CONVICTION, page A6
Amid chaos, Congress breaks By DAVID ESPO The Associated Press
also uses surveys and government statistics, put that average cost at $25,600. The Wedding Report lists the cost of a wedding in DeKalb County to be between $18,000 and $30,000, but adds that most local weddings are less than $10,000. Location, both in terms of the venue and the city, can be a major factor in the cost of the wedding, said Jeff Petersen, general manager at Chapel in the Pines in Sycamore.
WASHINGTON – The accomplishments are few, the chaos plentiful in the 113th Congress, a discourteous model of divided government now beginning a five-week break. “Have senators sit down and shut up, OK?” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blurted out Thursday as lawmakers milled about noisily at a time Sen. Susan Collins was trying Harry Reid to speak. There was political calculation even in that. Democrats knew the Maine Republican was about rip into her own party’s leadership, and wanted to make sure her indictment could be heard. Across the Capitol, unsteady bookends tell the story of the House’s first seven months in this two-year term. Internal dissent among Republicans nearly toppled Speaker John Boehner when lawmakers first convened in January. And leadership’s grip is no surer now: A routine spending bill was pulled from the floor this week, two days before the monthlong August break, for fear it would fall in a crossfire between opposing GOP factions. A few weeks earlier, Boehner suggested a new standard for Congress. “We should not be judged on how many new laws we create. We ought to be judged on how many laws that we repeal,” he said as Republicans voted for the 38th and 39th time since 2011 to repeal or otherwise neuter the health care law known as Obamacare.
See WEDDING, page A6
See CONGRESS, page A6
Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
Deanna Watkins, owner of Sweet Dream Desserts and Catering, carefully places a finished three-tiered wedding cake into the freezer Thursday after decorating it at her business in Sycamore.
Location, help from friends keep cost down for DeKalb County couples By DAVID THOMAS dthomas@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Her wedding in America was a big culture shock for the French-born Julie Peters. When Peters was planning her wedding to her husband, Jason, the DeKalb resident said she noticed how weddings were business ventures in the United States, as everything seemed to get more expensive when that word was added. “For example, in France, weddings essentially last nonstop
through an entire weekend,” Peters said. “But here you pay a small fortune for a place to have the reception and/or ceremony, and you only get the room, hall, or whatever, for only four hours at the absolute most.” Because of the time constraints of her visa, Peters said, she had two weddings. The first was at a courthouse in February, while the traditional wedding was in May. Peters said her wedding cost $9,000. While a lot of friends and family helped, it was more than what the couple had budgeted, she
Voice your opinion How much do you think is appropriate to spend on a wedding? Go to Daily-Chronicle.com to vote.
said. It’s hard to nail down the average cost of a wedding. TheKnot.com, a wedding planner website, polled its members and tabulated the average cost of a wedding to be more than $28,400. The Wedding Report, which
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