La Salle County judge to rule Aug. 10 on murder confession

Bradley French told police he fired the razor-tipped hunting arrow that struck Joshua Scaman, killing him. French does not want a jury to see and hear that statement.

Next Thursday, French finds out whether the incriminating video recording is admissible. Chief Judge H. Chris Ryan Jr. will make a ruling at 1 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10.

French, 30, of Varna, is charged with murder. He faces 20-60 years in prison, with no possibility of probation, if convicted of shooting the arrow that killed an Ottawa man in 2015 in a parking lot at Illinois Valley Community College.

French is awaiting an Aug. 14 do-over trial in La Salle County Circuit Court. Though he’d been previously found guilty of murdering Scaman, an appeals court threw out his conviction and 30-year sentence.

Thursday, French and his lawyer argued the videotaped statement was coerced and should not be admitted at the second trial.

French took the stand and said investigators denied him access to a telephone, which kept him from contacting a lawyer, and chained him to a bench in the Oglesby Police Department for hours, during which he was denied food and repeatedly asked for a trip to the restroom.

“I actually had to scream to go to the bathroom,” French testified.

French also said investigators baited him into confessing.

“I was told if I told them what they wanted to hear, I could go home,” he said.

Cumulatively, Peoria defense attorney Maureen Williams argued, these factors produced a confession that wasn’t free and voluntary, as required by law.

Police witnesses, however, painted a different picture.

Robert Stone, a former Oglesby police officer, testified he arrived at the scene and French admitted, with little prompting, that he fired the arrow.

Michael Padilla, another former Oglesby police officer, testified French was brought food from McDonald’s.

Stone acknowledged French was handcuffed to a bench in the booking area, rather than placed into a cell, which was Oglesby policy in cases of this type. Specifically, police didn’t want French having access to the sink or toilet of a cell, which would enable him to wash away potential evidence.

Former Oglesby Police Chief Jim Knoblauch said he authorized the purchase of food for French and did not recall French asking to use a restroom, much less “screaming” for relief as French had testified.

David Guinnee, then an investigator with the La Salle County Sheriff’s Office, testified French had a soft drink during the interview and signed a consent form in which he acknowledged his statement was free and voluntary.

None of the investigators recalled hearing French ask for a lawyer. And under cross-examination, French acknowledged he did not at first specifically ask for a lawyer.

“I asked for my phone to call my family to call a lawyer,” French clarified.

That’s a key distinction because courts have ruled a suspect must clearly and unequivocally ask for an attorney before a police interview must be halted.

Nevertheless, the judge needs to view the video recording and consider the totality of circumstances. Left unclear Thursday was how long French was handcuffed to the bench. Williams said it was “a minimum 7 hours.”

None of the witnesses could pinpoint the duration, though it took a crime-scene technician took about 8½ hours processing the scenes, after which the video-recorded interview was conducted.