http://www.thespec.com/news-story/6...-bombshell-i-committed-murder-not-my-brother/
[h=2]BROTHERS[/h] <small>Illinois Department of Corrections</small> Karl Smith, left, and Kevin Dugar
<small class="color printable-newspaper">Hamilton Spectator</small> By Steve Schmadeke
[h=2]BROTHERS[/h] <small>Illinois Department of Corrections</small> Karl Smith, left, and Kevin Dugar
<small class="color printable-newspaper">Hamilton Spectator</small> By Steve Schmadeke
CHICAGO It was the first time in years that the 38-year-old identical twin brothers had seen each other.
Their mother wept as she looked on.
But this was no typical family reunion.
Karl Smith was on the witness stand Thursday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago, making an admission seemingly ripped from a made-for-TV movie.
Smith confessed to a murder that his brother, Kevin Dugar, has been in custody for since 2003.
"I'm here to confess to a crime I committed that he was wrongly accused of," Smith testified moments after taking the witness stand.
His mother, Judy Dugar, cried as she listened from the courtroom gallery, while his brother, sitting at a table with his lawyer, wiped tears from his eyes.
But Cook County prosecutors questioned the stunning admission, telling a judge that Smith came forward only after an appeals court upheld his own conviction for attempted murder. He is serving a 99-year prison sentence for taking part in a home invasion and armed robbery in which a 6-year-old boy was shot in the head in 2008.
The two brothers, who dressed alike until eighth grade and impersonated each other for years afterward, still looked identical Thursday with their shaved heads and close-cropped beards. Only their clashing prison clothes set them apart. Smith is doing his time at Menard Correctional Center; Dugar at Stateville Correctional Center.
Growing up, the twins were closer than brothers they were "one person" who shared socks, shoes and even sandwiches, according to their mother and Smith.
Even their parents couldn't always tell the brothers apart, and on Thursday, Smith struggled to identify himself when shown a photo of the two of them.