EFFINGHAM CO., Ill.—The latest continuation of the multiple-count murder case against Justin DeRyke has a jury trial being set for April.
Justin DeRyke’s Effingham County mugshot
DeRyke, regular readers will recall, is the young man accused of murdering his niece, Willow Long, age 7, last September in the little village of Watson in Effingham County. He has been jailed in Effingham County since the morning of September 10, 2013.
Since that time, his public defender, has agreed to multiple continuances in a jury trial date set, despite DeRyke’s initial insistence that the matter go within the 120 days called for under the Constitution.
The latest continuance had set the jury trial to go this month (February 10), but that date passed with yet another continuance to a pretrial date of March 18. The next jury trial date now set on the court’s calendar is April 7, with jury selection to begin at 8:30 a.m.
Willow Long
Many of our Effingham County-area sources are telling us that they believe on the March 18 date, there will be a plea to one of the murder counts entered. This is just their OPINION based on what they are hearing in the course of the investigation, and is primarily centered around the disinclination many authorities have to see certain facts about Willow’s death come out in public…such as the condition of her body in the “multiple plastic bags,” and the third crime scene, as well as unconfirmed fourth crimes scene, both within the village of Watson. Regular readers will recall that mainstream media made a big deal out of our report of the third crime scene—a spot our stringers photographed but were run out of, in a location at a distance away from the DeRyke house (where Justin DeRyke stated in his confession Willow’s death occurred)—slamming us for reporting it, even after TWO officials confirmed it to us, one of them the coroner. Then ISP came behind and tidied it up, saying there wasn’t a third crime scene, and mainstream media, eager to be spoon-fed and to diss us at any opportunity, lapped it up…but the third crime scene is fact. And that will come out in a jury trial.
So if a jury trial DOES go off on April 7, we’ll cover it…and if a plea occurs on March 18, we’ll have that too. Be watching; mark your feeds, like our social media sites, and click often. We’ll bring it to you as it happens.