Firearms analysis and information from a jailhouse informant have linked a Burnham, Ill., man to a 2012 homicide in Hammond.
Stephen M. Day, 39, has been charged in Lake Superior Court with murder in the June 27, 2012, shooting of Thomas Thompson. Thompson was shot in the 1000 block of 171st Street in Hammond, near his home, court records state. Thompson died at St. Margaret Mercy North Campus in Hammond.
Last fall, an inmate at the Lake County Jail told a county police officer he had information related to the homicide, court records state. During an interview, the inmate identified Day from a photograph as the individual who approached him about participating in the killing of Thompson and who had offered him a financial reward, court records state. Before the homicide, Day and the inmate had traveled to the area where the shooting occurred and where Day pointed out a blue house on the corner.
Several weeks later, Day told the inmate that he had taken care of the matter they had discussed earlier, court records state. Day told the inmate he had shot Thompson a couple times and that Thompson crawled toward his residence, court records state.
Meanwhile, police noted that Day’s criminal history included an arrest on Nov. 2, 2012, by Burnhampolice that resulted in a charge of unlawful use of a weapon. Day was convicted of the charge and admitted he had a .357-caliber revolver. Police retrieved the gun that was confiscated when Day was arrested and a firearms analysis at the Indiana State Polcie lab in Lowell determined that the bullet recovered from Thompson’s autopsy had been fired from the revolver recovered from Day in 2012, court records state.
The murder charge was filed March 19 and unsealed after Day’s arrest on March 31.
