The third district Illinois appellate court last week affirmed the 2014 murder conviction of Kai A. Lefler, who had previously filed for retrial.
A jury found Lefler, 26 at the time, guilty of second degree murder and felony murder for the 2013 stabbing death of Robert Kilgore outside the victim’s Chestnut Street home. Lefler was also convicted of unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon and attempted burglary.
The Oneida man was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
According to an appellate court docket, Lefler argued for a new trial on the grounds that guilty verdicts were “legally inconsistent” in that no mitigating factors were found applicable to second degree murder. Lefler further argued his conviction for attempted burglary was improper because it served as the predicate offense to felony murder, meaning the burglary was a lesser crime that led to murder.
The appellate court found the jury and trial court were not in err with their verdicts. However, Lefler’s attempted burglary conviction was vacated.
