Chester Weger wins first-step ruling, will next appear Sept. 27 for status hearing

Chester Weger has cleared a key hurdle, the first of several needed to win a do-over trial of the Starved Rock murders.

On Friday, the 84-year-old parolee appeared in La Salle County Circuit Court and left with a favorable ruling. Judge Michael C. Jansz approved his request for successive post-conviction relief. Weger will next appear for a status hearing Sept. 27.

Today was a huge, huge step for us to get past the first stage.

—  Andy Hale, attorney for Chester Weger

Friday’s ruling does not mean Weger is cleared of murder, as now begins a briefing schedule expected to spill into 2024, but Jansz nonetheless opened the door for Weger to advance his argument that he was wrongly convicted of murder.

“Today was a huge, huge step for us to get past the first stage,” Weger’s attorney Andy Hale said. “We’ve been trying to get to this point for a long, long time.”

Hale said a new pleading would be submitted next week, but he readily acknowledged the second stage proceedings won’t happen until later this year or in 2024.

Jansz ruled that a video-recorded deposition by a Hennepin resident checked enough proverbial boxes for Weger to clear the first hurdle. In the deposition, which was not played in open court, Roy Tyson said the late Harold “Smoky” Wrona admitted in the mid-1990s that he, and not Weger, committed the murders.

Tyson did not immediately respond to a request for comment made through his social media channels Friday.

Weger was sentenced to life in prison for the 1960 murder of Lillian Oetting, who was found bludgeoned to death along with two companions. He confessed to the killings but recanted and has spent the past six decades trying to throw out his conviction.

More recently, Weger’s attorneys have asked for fresh testing of the 1960 evidence, arguing that scientific advances have made it possible to get results that once were unobtainable. Hale said new lab results could be available in October, while genealogy tests results won’t be available until further down the road.