Man sentenced to 50 years for ’92 murder of child

A man who stabbed a 6-year-old boy to death nearly three decades ago in a Far South Side garage was sentenced to 50 years in prison Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to attempted murder.

Osborne Wade wasn’t charged with Lindsey Murdock’s murder until 2016. Another man, Mark Maxson, would spend nearly two decades in prison for the crime until his conviction was vacated five years ago and he was declared innocent.

Before Wade was sentenced by Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas on Tuesday, prosecutors dropped two counts of murder against the 47-year-old, court records show.

The state’s attorney’s office “concluded that based on the evidence and the law, it was appropriate to resolve this case with a plea agreement and agreed prison sentence,” a spokeswoman said.

Wade said he saw Lindsey Murdock in an alley in the summer of 1992 and took him to an abandoned garage to molest him, prosecutors said.

Wade ended up strangling and stabbing the boy, whose body was found Aug. 30, 1992, in the 10700 block of South State Street.

In 1994, Maxson was convicted for killing Lindsey. That same year, Wade stabbed 18-year-old Joseph Stephens to death. Wade was convicted in that case and sentenced to 22 years in prison in 1997.

Police said Maxson confessed that he killed Lindsey after smoking crack cocaine and drinking beer.

But Maxson maintained his innocence at trial and said he was beaten by detectives and coerced into giving the confession — claims the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission deemed credible in 2013.

No physical evidence tied Maxson to the crime, and DNA testing later showed that none of the blood found on Lindsey’s clothing matched Maxson — but did match Wade.

Prosecutors asked a judge to vacate Maxson’s conviction the same week they charged Wade.

Wade had claimed he sent letters to Lindsey’s family and Maxson to apologize, prosecutors said.

At the time he was charged, Wade was in custody for failing to register as a convicted murderer and gave a videotaped confession for Lindsey’s murder.