SUMMARY

On August 9, 2022, 49-year-old Carlos Andino was exonerated in Chicago, Illinois, 28 years, four months and 23 days after he was arrested for a murder he did not commit. His conviction was vacated and dismissed after the Bonjean Law Group discovered evidence that the prosecution had failed to disclose—that the gunman had a teardrop tattoo on his face—a tattoo that Carlos did not have—as well as evidence that corrupt Chicago police detectives coerced false identifications from witnesses.

Andino had been convicted in 1996 of the fatal shooting of Mark Dibicki, based largely on testimony from children and an eyewitness whose identifications were manipulated by disgraced detectives Reynaldo Guevara and Ernest Halvorsen. Critical evidence—that the real gunman had a teardrop tattoo—was withheld, and his trial attorneys failed to challenge conflicts of interest, including their own professional ties to Guevara.

After spending more than 28 years in prison, Andino’s conviction was finally vacated in 2022. The following year, he was granted a certificate of innocence and awarded nearly half a million dollars in state compensation. He has also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking additional accountability for his wrongful conviction.