Crime & Safety
Wilson Agrees to Public Defender in Kelli O'Laughlin Murder Case
Charged with the 2011 murder of 14-year-old Kelli O'Laughlin, John Wilson decides to work with a public defender after trying to represent himself in his first-degree murder case.
John Wilson, charged with the Oct. 27, 2011 murder of 14-year-old Kelli O'Laughlin in her Indian Head Park home, has decided to let a public defender represent him after trying to represent himself in his first-degree murder case, the Doings Hinsdale reported Tuesday.
Cook County public defender David McMahon will represent Wilson. McMahon was assigned earlier this year to serve as Wilson's "stand-by counsel" when the defendant planned to represent himself.
McMahon on Tuesday withdrew all pending motions Wilson had previously filed, according to the Doings.
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Judge John J. Hynes will preside over the case. Hynes in June warned Wilson to stop delaying the legal process after his third request for a new judge was denied, the Chicago Tribune reported.
According to Indian Head Park Police, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and Illinois State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, Wilson on Oct. 27, 2011 broke into the rear of O'Laughlin's home on the 6300 block of Keokuk Avenue by putting by putting a rock in a knit cap and hurling it through the dining room window.After he was found by O’Laughlin, Wilson allegedly used a butcher knife from a cutlery block in the family’s kitchen to stab her repeatedly in the back, neck and chest. He then dragged her body from the family room into the kitchen.
Both the knife and the knit cap were found at the scene of the crime; a DNA profile from the cap matches Wilson’s own.
The case resumes in Cook County court Oct. 18.
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