Murder Conviction Overturned For McHenry Woman

MCHENRY COUNTY, IL — A McHenry woman wrongly accused of driving the getaway car in the fatal 2001 Burrito Express shooting in McHenry has been released from prison. The University of Illinois Innocence Project took on Jennifer McMullan's case, fighting for her freedom, and last week, after 19 years behind bars, she was able to return home.

“Jennifer has long maintained she is innocent of this crime, and the Illinois Innocence Project knows and believes her to be innocent,” said Stephanie Kamel, one of McMullan’s attorneys at IIP. “To be released, she faced an extremely difficult decision — accept a plea to a lesser charge or remain wrongfully imprisoned for years to come."

McMullan was released on the birthday of her mother, who died while she was behind bars, and decided to accept the deal so she could be with her father, whose health is deteriorating rapidly due to Alzheimer’s disease, according to her attorney and media reports.

McMullan's release comes on the heels of the man originally accused of shooting 34-year-old Raul Briseno also being set free. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh District found Kenneth Smith's trial evidence failed to support his conviction beyond a reasonable doubt, and like McMullan, Smith's conviction was vacated.

He was released from prison on May 7.

Briseno, 34, was the owner of Burrito Express at the time of the shooting. He has been described by his family as a loving father and successful business owner, according to a Shaw Media report.

He was fatally shot in March 2001 after two masked men attempted to rob the small restaurant. Wielding a butcher knife, Briseno and an employee chased the men out of the restaurant. During the chase, he was shot.

Authorities claimed McMullan, who was 19 at the time, was the getaway driver. Attorneys with the Innocence Project say she was coerced into providing a false confession and said authorities withheld "extensive and credible evidence implicating an alternate suspect group, never divulging the existence of the group," according to the news release.

"The alternate suspect group repeatedly confessed to committing the crime, providing to family, friends and two different police departments critical facts about the crime only the perpetrators would know," according to the news release.

McMullan was later convicted of first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery under the “theory of accountability," which is used in court to prove a person can be found guilty of acts committed by others, according to a news release. McMullan, who had no prior criminal convictions, was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

On June 16, McHenry County Judge Robert Wilbrandt granted a state's attorney's office petition to vacate the original charges and allowed McMullan to instead plead guilty to an armed violence charge. She was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison on that new charge, which was deemed complete by accounting for the time she already spent behind bars, according to the Shaw Media report.

"We're just so happy she's going home," her sister, Amanda Carlson, said. "We can't wait to live our lives with her."

Attorneys with the Innocence Project claim no physical evidence ever connected McMullan or her three co-defendants to the crime. Multiple rounds of DNA testing, including testing done last year, also excluded McMullan and her co-defendants from handling any "key pieces of evidence located at the bloody crime scene," according to a news release from the Innocence Project.

False confessions have played a role in the wrongful conviction of 101 individuals in Illinois — 31 of whom were under age 18 — according to the news release.

"False confessions are a significant cause of wrongful convictions,” said Maria de Arteaga, another one of McMullan’s attorneys at IIP. “Jennifer, at a young and vulnerable age, was pressured into giving an unreliable confession that led to her conviction.”