Man awaiting certificate of innocence for 1999 murder is now accused of threatening to shoot woman during armed robbery

Frank Burrell, inset, as seen during an appearance on CNN last year. (Chicago Police Department, CNN)

A man seeking a certificate of innocence for a reversed 1999 murder conviction is now detained on new charges after prosecutors said he robbed and threatened to shoot a woman during a confrontation involving his girlfriend, an on-duty CTA bus driver.

Frank Burrell, 50, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2003 and sentenced to 32 years in prison for the 1999 shooting of 29-year-old Renee Battle in Hyde Park. Battle was riding in the passenger seat of her boyfriend’s SUV when another driver pulled alongside, rolled down his window, and opened fire, killing Battle.

Battle’s boyfriend initially told police he did not recognize the shooter, but later identified Burrell. According to a contemporaneous Chicago police report, CPD detectives claimed Burrell’s mother saw a wanted poster and recognized him and two of his friends as the men sought in connection with the shooting. Burrell’s trial attorney called no witnesses, but his current attorneys say family members were ready to testify that he was home during the shooting.

After spending nearly two decades in prison, Burrell’s conviction was vacated by an appellate court in 2019, which granted him a new trial and released him on bail. Cook County prosecutors dropped all charges on March 5, 2024, the day his jury trial was slated to begin.

Burrell filed a petition for a certificate of innocence a few months later and is scheduled to appear before Judge Tyria Walton on Thursday for a hearing in that matter, according to court records.

But while Burrell is pursuing his certificate of innocence, prosecutors are trying to send him back to prison for a new altercation in which he allegedly threatened to shoot a woman to get control of her phone, which may have contained video of Burrell’s girlfriend misbehaving while working as a CTA bus driver.

Prosecutors said the bus incident began around 9:25 p.m. on September 13 near 47th Street and Wolcott Avenue. A 38-year-old woman was riding a CTA bus when she got into an argument with the driver, identified as Burrell’s girlfriend, 39-year-old Taysha Stillwell, about the way Stillwell was speaking to another passenger.

When the 38-year-old tried to exit, Stillwell allegedly closed the doors and blocked the aisle, preventing her from leaving. The woman eventually climbed over seats to reach the back door and escape. Prosecutors said Stillwell followed her off the bus and tried to grab her phone as the woman recorded the encounter. The victim ran away but later returned to meet a CTA supervisor after calling to report the incident.

As she spoke with the supervisor, Stillwell allegedly arrived in a vehicle with Burrell and told the woman she was “off work now” and came back to “beat [the victim’s] ass,” according to a detention petition. The woman began running away and allegedly heard Stillwell tell Burrell, “Get her, babe.”

Prosecutors said the victim saw that Burrell had a gun and fled into a nearby liquor store. Inside, Burrell allegedly shoved a bystander to the ground, causing her to hit her head and back on the floor.

He then grabbed the first victim by the hair, pressed the gun to her head, and demanded her phone, the detention petition said.

The woman, overcome by fear, dropped the phone, which Burrell took before fleeing.

Detectives reviewed surveillance footage from both the bus and the liquor store that corroborated the victims’ accounts, prosecutors said. Burrell and Stillwell were both detained on robbery charges by Judge Deidre Dyer. Burrell is also charged with aggravated battery.

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