In a plot twist that seemed to be straight from a movie, a man confessed in court on Thursday to a murder for which his identical twin brother had been convicted, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Karl Smith, 38, was on the witness stand at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago when he testified that he was the gunman in a 2003 shooting that left one man dead and another injured, the Tribune reports.
His brother Kevin Dugar was convicted in the shooting in 2005 and sentenced to 54 years in prison, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
A gunman opened fire on three people near Sheridan Road and Argyle Street in the city's Uptown neighborhood in March 2003, according to the Tribune, killing Antwan Carter and wounding Ronnie Bolden.
Bolden later identified Dugar in a photo lineup that did not include Smith, according to Dugar's petition for a post-conviction hearing, the Tribune reports.
Smith, who adopted his mother's maiden name, said Thursday that he didn't come forward because he thought his brother would be acquitted, according to the Tribune, and he even sat in on at least one day of Dugar's trial.
Smith is serving a 99-year prison sentence for a 2007 home invasion and armed robbery in which a 6-year-old boy was shot in the head, the Tribune reports, never confessing to the murder until he wrote his brother a letter in 2013.
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Dugar responded by telling Smith to contact his lawyers, according to the Tribune.
Prosecutors questioned Smith's motivation for the confession, the Tribune reports, telling the judge that he only came forward after a court upheld his own conviction for attempted murder in the 2007 case.
It was unclear when the judge will decide if Dugar should be given a new trial.
