Man charged in 2016 Sycamore murders denied bond

SYCAMORE – A DeKalb County judge has again ordered Jonathan Hurst held without bail following a hearing Wednesday.

Hurst, 51, of Cincinnati, was arrested last week in connection with the 2016 murders of Sycamore residents Robert Wilson and Patricia Wilson. He first appeared in court via closed-circuit television Friday, when prosecutors requested Hurst be held without bond.

Hurst faces first-degree murder charges and, if convicted, could face a sentence of life in prison.

Hurst appeared in court Wednesday in handcuffs and wearing an orange jumpsuit from the DeKalb County Jail. He was quiet during the hearing as his attorney, DeKalb County Public Defender Tom McCulloch, argued that prosecutors had not met the burden for Hurst to be denied bail.

First Assistant State's Attorney Stephanie Klein said there were phone records showing Hurst's cell phone was in the area on the day before the crime scene was discovered and that Hurst's DNA was found on multiple items and in multiple locations in the Wilsons' home, and that the Wilsons' stolen car was found within a mile of Hurst's residence in Chicago at the time of the murders.

Illinois law allows defendants to be held without bond if the crime they are charged could come with a life sentence if convicted.

Judge Phillip Montgomery ordered Hurst held with no bond.

A long history in Wilson case

Robert Wilson, 64, and Patricia Wilson, 85, were longtime Sycamore-area residents. Family members discovered the crime scene shortly before 6 p.m. on Aug. 15, 2016, almost a full day after the Wilsons were killed, police have said. Nine days passed before Patricia Wilson's Impala was discovered legally parked on Stockton Avenue near Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, near where Route 64 ends.

A coroner's investigation found the Wilsons died from blunt-force trauma.

The process that led investigators to Hurst involved cross-referencing DNA databases and constructing a family history. Parabon and the detectives constructed an intricate web of family trees and then attempted to match the suspect’s DNA with genetic markers that indicate a DNA match.