CHICAGO — More than 12 years after 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton was shot and killed in a case that drew international attention, a judge Tuesday once again ordered her alleged shooter held in jail while awaiting trial.

Micheail Ward, who is charged with murder and other felonies in Pendleton’s killing, appeared in court at the Leighton Criminal Court Building more than two months after the state’s high court allowed his conviction to remain overturned. The fatal shooting of the King College Prep High School honors student shortly after she performed as a majorette at then-President Barack Obama’s second inauguration put a spotlight on gun and gang violence in Chicago.

Now, after a failed bid to salvage the conviction, Cook County prosecutors are retrying Ward with all the challenges that come with revisiting a high-profile case that is more than a decade old. But they won their first battle in keeping Ward incarcerated while the case is pending, even as Ward’s attorneys argued that an appeals court decision that suppressed his confession significantly weakened their case.

“This shooting took place at a public park in the middle of the afternoon when multiple people were present,” said Judge Diana Kenworthy as she denied Ward’s motion for release. “This was an incredibly brazen act.”

Pendleton and other King High School students had finished final exams and were enjoying an unusually nice winter afternoon at a North Kenwood park on Jan. 29, 2013 when they were hit with a barrage of gunfire, police and prosecutors have said. Pendleton was killed by a bullet meant for someone else, and two others were injured.

During Ward’s first 2018 trial, prosecutors alleged that Ward and his co-defendant, Kenneth Williams, allegedly members of the SUWU gang, targeted members of the rival 4-6 Terror gang at the park, their hangout, as part of an ongoing feud.

Prosecutors also provided evidence to the jury that Ward confessed to detectives, but an appeals court reversed the convictions and ordered the statements be suppressed, finding that detectives continued to question Ward after he asked for an attorney.

Even without the confession, Assistant State’s Attorney Jim Papa argued, witnesses identified Ward as the shooter, and associates of Ward’s reported that he made incriminating statements following the shooting. Papa also said that cell tower evidence and surveillance footage supports the state’s allegations.

Ward’s attorney Stephen Richards, though, contended that the state’s eyewitnesses made only tentative, uncertain identifications, and he pointed out the the alleged associates of Ward all recanted at trial and said they were threatened by police.

One of the detectives on the case, John Halloran, has been accused of being a member of the notorious “midnight crew” of former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge, whose legacy of torture is responsible for numerous overturned convictions in Chicago.

Richards suggested that Halloran may decline to testify in Ward’s case by invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

“That’s another major, major hole in the state’s case,” Richards said.

Pendleton’s parents sat in the gallery to watch the proceedings, and told reporters while leaving the courthouse that it was devastating to have to go through the trial process again.

“We have a long road ahead of us,” said Pendleton’s mother, Cleopatra Cowley.

____

©2025 Chicago Tribune. Visit at chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.