As Expected, Charges Dropped in Policeman's Slaying
CHICAGO -- Armed robbery and murder charges were dropped Wednesday against a 26-year-old man accused of fatally shooting a Chicago Police officer and a social worker.
Jason Austin was in Cook County Circuit Court for a hearing that lasted less than a minute. Prosecutor LuAnn Snow asked that the charges be dropped and Austin’s attorney, David Wiener, responded by saying: “No objection.’’
The case against Austin faltered after witnesses recanted, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Austin was arrested for the Aug. 13 fatal shootings of Officer Robert Soto, 49, and Kathryn Romberg, 45, a social worker for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Soto and Romberg were shot as they sat in Soto’s SUV outside her home in the 3000 block of West Franklin Boulevard. She died at the scene. He died a day later.
Austin, who served two stints in prison for aggravated battery and drug possession, was charged Aug. 18. Police spoke to witnesses who said Austin pulled up behind Soto’s SUV, drew a gun and fired four shots during a holdup. The witnesses included two people in Austin’s car, prosecutors said at his bond hearing last month.
Soto managed to call 911. He said he was robbed, described three attackers and added that a maroon car fled west. Four other witnesses heard the shots and saw Austin’s car go by, prosecutors said. After the robbery, Austin allegedly told a friend that he “hit a lick” -- a holdup.
Police later seized Austin’s Buick Regal. The car matched the description Soto gave and it matched a car captured on a security camera leaving the shooting, authorities said.
But last month, Wiener sent an investigator to a West Side repair shop. The owner and an employee told the investigator that Austin’s maroon Buick Regal was in the shop Aug. 12 and was still there the next day, several hours after the shootings.
Wiener said he approached prosecutors with his findings.
Witnesses to the shooting also changed their story, sources said.
Contents of this site are Copyright 2008 by WBBM. The STNG wire contributed to this report.
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