Man Who Spent Two Decades in Prison for Murder Released After Twin Brother Confesses to Crime

Years after his twin brother confessed to the murder he was convicted of, an Illinois man was released from prison.

According to Illinois documents, Kevin Dugar was found guilty of a 2003 gang-related killing in Chicago and was sentenced in 2005.

After spending nearly two decades in custody, Dugar was released on Tuesday, Jan. 26, years after his twin brother confessed to the 2003 crime.

“We are delighted that Kevin is free after almost 20 years of incarnation for a crime he did not commit,” Ron Safer, Dugar’s attorney, told McClatchy news. “We look forward to ensuring that he remains free.

Dugar and his identical twin, Karl Smith, were involved in the same gang — the Conservative Vice Lords — and were known to impersonate one another, court documents say. The brothers testify that while Smith was still involved with the gang, Dugar had grown “tired of the lifestyle” and was trying to move forward from it.

On the night of March 22, 2003, two rival gang members were shot. One was pronounced dead at the scene, and the other survived, telling police Dugar was the man responsible.

After Dugar was brought in for a police lineup, a 16-year-old witness positively identified him as the killer. At the time, his twin brother was not present and “never participated in a lineup despite efforts to have him come in for it,” detectives said.

He was sentenced to 48 years for first-degree murder, plus a 25-year firearm enhancement, and six years for attempted murder, court documents show.

In 2014, Smith made a shocking confession, stating he had let his brother take the fall for him for over a decade and that he was the one who gunned the two men that night, not Dugar.

[Smith] thought the charges against his brother would not stick since his brother did not commit the crime,  he said, according to documents.

Smith said he used drugs and alcohol to cope with what he allowed to happen to his brother in the years that followed.

According to documents, after Smith’s confession, Dugar sought a retrial in 2018 but was denied. At the time, the court found that “the brothers had a pattern of misdirection and deceit” owning their habit of impersonating each other to get out of trouble, and it was “unbelievable that anyone would let their innocent twin sit in the penitentiary for ten years for a crime that they themselves committed.”

Smith was sentenced to 99 years in prison for his role in a 2008 armed robbery and home invasion, in which a 6-year-old was shot in the head, the Chicago Tribune reported. Since he was facing life in prison, Smith had “nothing to lose” by taking credit for the 2003 killing, the court found, adding that Smith’s recounting of events conflicts with the witnesses’ testimony.

Dugar appealed, and in 2021, a judge threw out his conviction and granted him a retrial.

“After a careful consideration of all of the evidence, the Court of Appeals ruled that the jury hearing that evidence, both the old and the new evidence, would likely acquit Kevin, Safer told McClatchy.

Safer said that the State’s Attorney’s Officer “further delayed the process” by requesting to have the case brought before the Illinois Supreme Court, which it declined.

Dugar walked out of the Cook County jail on Tuesday, January 26, to his family waiting for him. Safer told McClatchy that Dugar is “grateful” and “overwhelmed” by his newfound freedom.