Indiana appeals court overturns Gary man’s murder conviction
The smokestacks of US Steel - which was the source of Gary, Indiana's meteoric rise at the turn of the century and collapse in the 1970s - are seen on Nov. 2, 2011. (Mira Oberman/AFP via Getty Images)
CROWN POINT, Ind., (AP) — Indiana’s appeals court has overturned the murder conviction of a Gary man sentenced last year to 115 years in prison for a fatal shooting at a gas station.
The 2-1 decision released Wednesday overturned 31-year-old Marquis D. Young’s murder conviction and his convictions on two counts of attempted murder, citing a lack of evidence. A jury convicted Young in the shooting that killed 27-year-old Dion Clayton and wounded two other men.
But appeals court Judge Nancy Vaidik wrote that a cigarette butt with Young’s DNA on it that police found near the gas station two days after the shooting “comes nowhere close to proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
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