CHICAGO — Authorities made the gut-wrenching decision Tuesday to release their sole suspect in the slaying of Chicago Police Officer Robert Soto.
Prosecutors are expected to seek the dismissal of murder and robbery charges against Jason Austin, 26, in court today. "We're faced with witnesses recanting because they fear retaliation. The integrity of the investigation is solid. We're going to continue to follow the evidence," one police official said.
Detectives were trying to prove a pattern of intimidation after witnesses started changing their stories, a source said. Police and prosecutors held a tense, high-level meeting at police headquarters Tuesday before deciding to release Austin, the Sun-Times first reported on its Web site.
"I am elated because the kid didn't do it," said Austin's attorney, David Wiener. "There is just no question in my mind. He said, 'I didn't do it.' "
Wiener praised State's Attorney Dick Devine and his office, saying, "They told me two weeks ago if I proved my client did not commit that crime, they would throw the case out."
Spokesmen for the police and the state's attorney's office declined comment.
Officers who investigated the killing were "sick to their stomach" about the decision, a source said. "Rotten,'' was how another high-ranking police official put it.
Soto, 49, and Kathryn Romberg, 45, a social worker for the state Department of Children and Family Services, were shot to death about 1:30 a.m. Aug. 13 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.
Despite the decision to free Austin, the victims' families support the police. "We're sure they're going to do a good job," said Robert Galvan, Soto's brother-in-law. "We have all the confidence in the world in them."
Kathryn Romberg's brother said he wanted the "right person" to face justice. "They'll find the right person and when they do, may that person rot in hell,'' Michael Romberg said.