Former Marengo man charged in homicide gets new judge in Winnebago County

Another judge will hear the case of Jonathan Van Duyn, the former Marengo man charged with killing his girlfriend in 2020 and hiding her body in a U-Haul storage unit in Roscoe.

Winnebago County Judge Randy Wilt granted the motion filed by Van Duyn’s defense attorney, Collin Evans, asking that another judge be assigned to hear the case.

Van Duyn, 34, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and concealment of a homicide in the death of Michelle Arnold-Boesiger of Marengo, according to the criminal indictment.

Evans said Van Duyn fears Wilt and Judge Brendan Maher are “so prejudiced against him that he cannot receive a fair trial,” using language in a state statute that allows someone charged with a Class X felony or a crime that could be punished by death or life imprisonment to name two judges as prejudiced.

The law does not require the defense to say why they think the judge would be prejudiced.

The case will now appear before Judge Joseph McGraw on April 18 to be reassigned.

If convicted on the murder charge, Van Duyn faces a maximum of 60 years in prison. The concealment charge carries a maximum of five years.

Should he be found not guilty, he would be returned to Wisconsin where he would finish his sentence for interfering with child custody. He pleaded guilty there of abducting his 10-year-old daughter from her mother’s Wisconsin home, traveling with her to a campsite in Indiana in December 2020, and concealing her whereabouts for several days.