Bow-and-arrow trial begins in La Salle County: Self-defense or murder?

Joshua Scaman died after being struck with a razor-tipped hunting arrow in 2015. Bradley French fired it from a compound bow. That’s not disputed.

But was it self-defense or was it murder?

A jury will settle that question as early as Thursday in La Salle County Circuit Court. If convicted of first-degree murder, French, 30, of Varna faces 20 to 60 years in prison with no possibility of probation.

Tuesday, prosecutors said Scaman’s death was a premeditated murder. French, they said, tried to cover it up even while Scaman lay dying in a parking lot at Illinois Valley Community College.

“They got [French] all revved up to take care of this problem for them, and that’s what he did.”

—  Matt Kidder, assistant La Salle County state's attorney

Assistant La Salle County State’s Attorney Matt Kidder told a jury Scaman’s death on June 21, 2015, was “entirely avoidable – senseless.” Scaman had been arguing by telephone with his girlfriend, who with her daughter sought refuge at French’s home in Varna, Kidder said.

Although French had no skin in the argument – he did not know the two women well – he “injected himself,” Kidder said, into the dispute and then had an angry exchange of his own with Scaman. This led to the fatal rendezvous at the college parking lot, according to Kidder.

“They got [French] all revved up to take care of this problem for them,” Kidder said, “and that’s what he did.”

French also made an incriminating statement to Robert Stone, then an Oglesby police sergeant, who approached French at the scene.

“After I asked [French] what happened,” Stone testified, “he immediately said, ‘I stabbed him with an arrow.’ ”

French, Kidder said, then admitted to all this in a video-recorded interview with police.

French’s lawyer, Peoria defense attorney Maureen Williams, said French was the victim of circumstances that spun out of control. French intervened with noble intents, Williams said, and tried to settle things peacefully.

But when Scaman repeatedly threatened his girlfriend – “If you’re not home in 30 minutes, I’m going to come there and kill you” – French stepped in to head off violence, Williams said. When he couldn’t calm Scaman down by phone, French proposed meeting face-to-face. One of the woman instructed French to arm himself beforehand, Williams said.

“You’ve got to have a weapon,” Williams said, recounting the exchange. “[Scaman] will have a weapon.”

Upon arriving, Scaman screeched to a halt and jumped out running – “This is real now,” Williams said – and practically dared French to shoot.

Williams also urged jurors to take French’s statement with a grain of salt. French, she said, confessed after hours of mistreatment – chained to a police bench, denied food and water – and thus was coerced into making incriminating statements.

This is French’s second trial. A previous jury found him guilty of murder but an appeals court reversed his conviction and 30-year sentence.