Witness Intimidation Admission in Soto-Austin Case

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Nov 19, 2008 6:07PM

The Saga of Jason Austin continues. The West Side man was originally charged with the murders of off-duty Chicago Police Officer Robert Soto and social worker Kathryn Romberg only to later have the charges dropped. Following his release, he decided to sue the city for mistreatment. One of the reasons given for the dismissal of charges was that witnesses recanting. Now comes an admission of guilt by a teenager who was charged with beating a witness who talked to police about Austin and the murders.

During the investigation, two teenage girls – Tashianda Howland, 18, and a 16-year-old relatives, were charged with beating and intimidating a female witness.

Authorities said the witness was beaten at least twice on the city's West Side. On Aug. 19, the 16-year-old suspect hit the witness in the face with a lock attached to a string, police said. The victim suffered a swollen lip and eye during the attack in the 600 block of North Troy, authorities said. The 16-year-old girl also made threats on the victim's life, police said. Later, Howland beat the victim with her fists, then the 16-year-old allegedly threatened the witness with a canister of pepper spray, police said.

There's currently no indication that this will have any effect on the case at all. Another key piece of evidence that cleared Austin was his car: while a dying Soto described a car similar to Austin's as belonging to his shooter, it was discovered Austin's car had been at a mechanic's shop at the time of the shooting.