A black man who escaped arrest for 26 years after the shooting of a white police officer was acquitted of that murder and has only one obstacle to his freedom - the fact that he ran.
Richard Bernard Thomas, 51, was convicted Monday by a racially mixed jury of fleeing to avoid prosecution. He was acquitted of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated assault and possession of explosives.He faces a maximum sentence on Jan. 5 of up to seven years. His lawyers said they will ask for him to be released for the 18 months already served.
Authorities accused Thomas of membership in the Black Unity Council, an offshoot of the Black Panthers blamed for shooting a number of officers and plotting to blow up a police station in 1970.
They believed he fired the bullets that killed Sgt. Frank Von Colln in a guardhouse in Fairmount Park.
Thomas lived under an assumed name in New York City, where he drove a cab. He later moved to Chicago.