LAWRENCE CO.— Sources have indicated that evidence in a May 2013 murder case appears to have been lost in transit as it was making its way to the appellate court.
In December 2013, then-22-year-old Tyler McQueen was sentenced to 50 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for what prosecutors say was his part in the March 2012 murder of Bob Westall, 78, at the United Methodist Village apartments in Lawrenceville.
During a hearing today (Tuesday, August 19) it was announced that a box containing evidence to be presented to the appellate court arrived at McQueen’s defense attorney Matt Vaughn’s office in Fairfield “demolished with a hole in it.”
Sources indicate the box was mailed from Lawrenceville.
Vaughn is said to have hand-delivered the “demolished” box to the appellate court and someone there described it as a “jumbled mess.”
“There were records and photographs missing,” said a source close to the case.
The box is said to have made its way back to Lawrence County Circuit Clerk Peggy Fredrick’s office where Fredrick inventoried what contents were left and compared it to her original packing list.
Sources indicate that numerous prosecution photographs were missing, as well as five defense photographs.
Vaughn is said to have had copies of the five defense photos missing, but there is some concern about the prosecution’s copies they came up with.
“Instead of individual photographs, as was presented as evidence during trial, the prosecution came up with copies of their missing photos but they are printed on sheets of four photographs each and some of those photographs weren’t presented at trial or entered into evidence,” the source said. “In essence the appellate court will be seeing photographs not used during trial.”
Fredrick is said to have inventoried the contents of the damaged box, replaced any missing portions of transcripts, packed the photographs the defense and prosecution had copies of and delivered the evidence to the appellate court this afternoon.
Sources indicate that Vaughn continues to believe the case may be overturned because he feels judge Robert Hopkins did not have legal authority to shut down closing arguments at the end of the trial when Vaughn started to mention McQueen’s co-defendant, and believed mastermind in the murder of her uncle, Helen Marie Westall.
Westall entered a guilty plea to one of two Murder for Hires charges in March 2014 and was sentenced to 30 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
It remains to be seen just how the box of evidence, demolished with a hole in it, will play out in McQueen’s appeal.
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