Hebron woman accused of perjury in 2020 drug-induced homicide case

A Hebron woman convicted in connection with a 2020 drug-induced homicide now is accused of making false statements in that case while under oath, according to McHenry County court records.

Casey L. Johann, 26, was arraigned Wednesday on one count of perjury, a Class 3 felony.

She is accused of making false statements and providing contradictory statements between April 19, 2022, and May 26, 2023, in connection with the fatal fentanyl overdose of Tyler Martin of McHenry.

Johann was charged in May 2021 with drug-induced homicide, a Class X felony, and unlawful delivery of a controlled substance along with her boyfriend, John M. Maly, 29, in Martin’s death.

Martin, 29, died from the adverse effects of fentanyl, according to the McHenry County coroner and court records.

In September 2021, Johann agreed to a plea deal, in which she pleaded guilty to an amended charge of attempted drug-induced homicide, a Class 1 felony, records show.

In exchange, the other charges were dismissed, and she was required to say under oath and on the record in open court that statements she had made to detectives about Maly’s part in the drug buy were truthful.

She was sentenced to 30 months of probation, which she later violated by testing positive for opiates. She had her probation revoked and was resentenced to five years in prison. She has since completed that sentence.

The investigation into Martin’s death began Oct. 24, 2020, when police arrived at his home and found him dead.

They also found his cellphone, a plate with lines of tarnish-colored powdered and a small plastic bag covered with tiny red hearts and partially filled with the same powdery substance, according to grand jury transcripts detailing the testimony of Detective Eric Lee.

A small, cut plastic straw was found nearby, and the powder later tested positive for fentanyl, according to the transcripts.

I-Pass and cell tower data, surveillance tapes outside a McDonald’s in Bridgeview and cellphone calls and texts – in which Martin and Maly allegedly discussed driving to Bridgeview to buy heroin, stating that Johann would drive them in her black Jeep – ultimately led to the charges against the couple.

Surveillance tape showed who Lee thought was Maly exit the front passenger side of the Jeep alone, walk into a residential area and then return to the Jeep, according to grand jury testimony.

During this time, Lee said Johann, the driver of the Jeep, and Martin, a backseat passenger, remained in the Jeep, according to the transcripts.

In his grand jury testimony, Lee said Johann corroborated his testimony during the investigation.

Lee said she told him and another detective that Maly asked her to drive him and Martin to Bridgeview to buy “dope,” and she obliged, according to the transcripts.

Lee said Johann then said she drove them back to Martin’s house, and the two men went inside for a short time while she waited in the car.

Maly, she allegedly said to investigators, then came back out to her car, and they left. They, too, ingested the drugs but did not overdose. Johann also allegedly told the detectives that Maly said to her that the police would “get him” for Martin’s death because he was with him when they picked up the drugs, according to the transcripts.

However, in an affidavit filed June 21 by Maly’s then-attorney Brian Stevens, as part of a motion to dismiss charges against Maly, Johann said she was “coerced” by detectives to implicate Maly.

According to the affidavit, a more recent statement made by Johann “clearly contradicts and refutes” Lee’s grand jury testimony, and the affidavit alleges that “Lee misled the grand jury with his false testimony of Oct. 23, 2020.”

According to the recent affidavit, Johann, when called as a witness in Maly’s case, said she “never observed” Maly exit the vehicle at the McDonald’s, purchase any illegal narcotics or deliver any narcotics to Martin.

“Any statements made [by Johann] to law enforcement made previous to the date of this affidavit were made at a time when the affiant felt coerced by law enforcement and when she was under duress,” Stevens wrote in the affidavit.

Stevens said Tuesday that Johann called him and said “everything essentially she told the detective was inaccurate.”

The call prompted him to create the affidavit based on what she told him and attach it to the motion to dismiss charges against Maly, said Stevens, who does not represent Johann.

“I wanted an under-oath statement to combat her previous under-oath statement in open court,” he said.

Because of the perjury charge filed against Johann, Stevens was disqualified as Maly’s attorney because he now could potentially be called as a witness in Johann’s case, he said.

Prosecutors also pointed to the number of calls Maly made to Johann – at the time, more than 700 – between the time she made her initial sworn oath and the time Stevens submitted the affidavit saying she said those statements were untrue, according to court records.

Maly, who is the father of Johann’s child, lost his phone privileges in July over the phone calls.

McHenry County Judge Tiffany Davis also threatened to grant prosecutors’ motion to take away Maly’s rights to possess protected discovery in his case. This occurred in July after he wrote a letter to the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office threatening to share it with others, including other governmental agencies, if a detective in his case was not charged with perjury.

Maly, who is due in court Oct. 12 on the motion to dismiss, now is being represented by special public defender Kevin Hanzel.

Johann is being represented by the public defender’s office.