By Police1 Staff
GARY, Ind. — After 35 years behind bars, a convicted cop killer is out of prison.
In 1981, Zolo Azania, formally known as Rufus Averhart, and two other men were robbing a bank when police responded to the scene, CBS Chicago reported.
As Lt. George Yaros, 57, approached the men, the suspects opened fire on the officer. Witnesses said Azania shot Yaros in the chest as he laid wounded on the ground.
Azania was convicted and sentenced to death in 1981, but his death penalty was overturned twice by the Indiana Supreme Court. He was then sentenced to 74 years in prison.
He admitted he was an accomplice, but claimed he did not shoot Yaros.
The killing wasn’t the first on Azania’s record. He pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for the killing of another man during a botched robbery in 1972, according to the news station.
Before the third death penalty trial in the Yaros killing, the officer’s family agreed to drop the capital punishment request if Azania accepted a 74-year sentence, ABC 7 reported.
Officials said he was released Monday from prison for good behavior. But Yaros’ son Tim told ABC 7 he doesn’t believe Azania has changed.
“I just don’t think justice was served,” Tim said. “All the times we went to Indianapolis for Supreme Court hearings, he would come out in the shackles, but he would never look me in the eye, not one time. He would never look at anyone in our family.”
Azania, now 61, claims his innocence to this day.
“Now he’s getting a third chance,”Tim said. “I don’t think he deserves any chance whatsoever.”