A Cook County judge on Friday denied bail for a man who has been incarcerated for more than 10 years while awaiting trial in the 2011 slaying of an off-duty police officer, dashing the hopes of family members in the courtroom.

Tyrone Clay, 40, is charged with murder, armed robbery and other felonies in the shooting death of Officer Clifton Lewis. His attorneys sought his release during a bail hearing, alleging numerous problems with the evidence in the case built by police and prosecutors.

Clay and his family have maintained his innocence during his unusually long wait for a trial.

“He’s going to be hurting,” Clay’s mother, Lavetta Maxwell said after the hearing. “I’m afraid for my son.”

As the judge who has been critical of the slow delivery of evidence in the case made her ruling, gasps could be heard in the courtroom, while a relative of Clay’s stormed out. Clay dropped his head in his hands, while his mother tried to soothe him from the gallery.

Lewis was killed while working a second job as a security guard at a West Side convenience store after he was shot by two masked men at M&M Quick Foods in the 1200 block of North Austin Boulevard in December 2011.

Prosecutors have charged Clay and two other men in the case that has dragged on for more than a decade. Prosecutors allege that Clay and Alexander Villa shot Lewis while Edgardo Colon served as their getaway driver.

Clay has been awaiting trial while attorneys have argued over whether his videotaped statements should be shown to a jury. His attorneys have said he couldn’t waive his Miranda rights due to “limited intelligence and verbal comprehension.”

Clay’s attorneys filed a motion in April asking Cook County Judge Erica Reddick to reconsider whether Clay should be released pretrial. He has been held without bail since his arrest in January of 2012.

“Here’s someone who has been in jail for 11 years,” his public defender, Marijane Placek, said after the hearing. “I really don’t understand it.”

During the bail hearing, prosecutors contended that Clay fired multiple shots down at Lewis after Villa also shot the officer. Assistant State’s Attorney Andrew Varga said Colon implicated Clay and Villa in the slaying after he was arrested on unrelated weapons charges in January 2012.

Placek countered that the evidence prosecutors have against Clay is weak, based on, she said, two witnesses: Colon, who has recanted and another man who she said is recorded giving conflicting statements. She pointed to ongoing difficulties in receiving evidence from police and prosecutors as well as allegations the defendants have made of police and prosecutorial misconduct.

“The only thing that they have is two corrupted witnesses,” she said.

Placek told the judge that if released, Clay would live with his mother and have the support of multiple family members, many of whom were in court Friday. She said he received a barber certification while in jail and had a job waiting for him in a Lombard barber shop.

“He has not received any major infraction from the jail,” Placek said. “He has in fact been using his time wisely.”

Maxwell said she understood the gravity of the situation but had hoped for another outcome.

“Somebody got killed. My heart goes out to the family,” Maxwell said after the hearing. “My son did not do this.”

In giving her ruling, Reddick said Illinois law provides that defendants charged with an offense that carries a mandatory life sentence shall be held without bail when the “proof is evident or the presumption is great.” Reddick said she found that the proof was evident, even though she said the presumption was not great.

The defendants have appeared in court a handful of times in recent weeks and months, tussling over access to evidence, with defense attorneys accusing police and prosecutors of failing to meet their discovery obligations and Reddick appearing to grow more displeased at delays.

“I’m not interested in any more of fantastical tales of why (the evidence) hasn’t been produced,” Reddick said to a city attorney during a hearing last week.

At issue are Chicago Police Department documents related to a joint CPD and federal investigation into the Spanish Cobras street gang called “Operation Snake Doctor,” during which defense attorneys say police generated information about the Lewis killing.

Federal prosecutors, though, have maintained that releasing some of the documentation would violate federal grand jury secrecy rules, leaving Reddick to order city attorneys to untangle the evidence and turn over everything possible.

Colon is awaiting a new trial after his conviction was thrown out by an Illinois appellate court, which said his constitutional rights were violated when police continued questioning him after he indicated he wanted a lawyer. A Cook County judge and an appellate court agreed that the statements should be thrown out.

Villa was convicted in 2019 but has not been sentenced and has a pending motion for a new trial.

mabuckley@chicagotribune.com