Judge denies Malta man’s request to reconsider life sentence for murders of woman, unborn son

OREGON – An Ogle County judge denied a Malta man’s request Monday to reconsider his natural life in prison sentence for murdering a Mt. Morris woman and their unborn son in 2020.

Matthew Plote, 37, through his attorneys John Kopp and Liam Dixon, filed the motion July 22 asking Judge John “Ben” Roe to reconsider the sentence because he had no other criminal history and should have received a lesser sentence.

“[Plote] had a law-abiding life [and] had used his skills to save lives up to this point,” Dixon argued at Monday’s hearing.

An Ogle County jury found Plote guilty of killing Melissa Lamesch, 27, on Nov. 25, 2020, just one day before Thanksgiving and two days before their baby was to be born.

Jurors deliberated for two hours March 22 before finding Plote guilty of four counts of first-degree murder; three counts of intentional homicide of an unborn child; and one count each of residential arson, aggravated domestic battery and concealment of a homicidal death.

Calling it a “brutal crime,” Roe sentenced Plote on June 27 to life in prison after hearing victim impact statements from Lamesch’s mother, father and sister, as well as arguments from attorneys.

Roe said he considered all arguments and evidence and, in addition to the life sentence, sentenced Plote to 60 years in prison for the death of the baby and 15 years in prison for setting the Lamesch home on fire in an attempt to conceal the deaths. The sentences will be served concurrently.

On Monday, Dixon asked Roe to reconsider the sentences, arguing that the brutal nature of the crime should not have been considered when Roe weighed factors in the sentencing process.

“The jury found him guilty of a brutal crime,” Dixon said. “It is almost a double enhancement to consider it again at his sentencing.”

Assistant State’s Attorney Heather Kruse disagreed.

“We believe the court ruled appropriately when the sentences were set,” she said, adding that the state alleged that the murders were committed “in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner.”

“We alleged premeditation, not brutal enhancement,” Kruse told Roe.

In the motion to reconsider the sentences, Kopp and Dixon argued that the sentences rendered by Roe were “cruel and unusual punishment and a shock to the moral sense of the community.”

Roe said the sentences were appropriate when considering that Lamesch was “fighting for her life and her baby boy’s life” for four to six minutes as she was strangled to death.

Plote, who is being housed at Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, waived his right to appear at Monday’s hearing, Dixon said.

After Roe’s denial of the motion to reconsider, Dixon said a notice to appeal the sentence and guilty verdict to the Illinois Appellate Court would be refiled.

In July, the defense filed motions asking that the Illinois Appellate Court reverse the convictions or order a new trial. That notice of appeal did not lay out arguments for why the convictions and sentences should be overturned.

Court documents show that Plote is now indigent and will be appointed an appellate defender for the appeal process.

Lamesch was found laying on her kitchen floor not breathing and covered with soot and debris when Mt. Morris firefighters forced their way into her home on South Hannah Avenue about 4:30 p.m. Nov. 25, 2020.

When she was dragged from the burning home and placed into an ambulance, there was no electrical activity in her heart, and she was pronounced dead at 4:54 p.m., firefighters testified.

During the trial, detectives accused Plote, a Carol Stream paramedic, of strangling Lamesch because he didn’t want the birth of his son to interfere with his “carefree playboy lifestyle.”

In an initial police interview Nov. 25, 2020, Plote told detectives that Lamesch had wanted him to be involved with the baby. Plote added that he initially “wasn’t on board” but went to her home to “work things out.”

Plote told police that he stayed “about an hour” at Lamesch’s home, and they talked at the kitchen table before moving to the couch to have what he described as consensual sex. He said he then left the home by walking out the front door.

He chose not to take the stand during the jury trial.

Cassie Baal, Lamesch’s older sister, told jurors that she was on the phone with her sister when Plote appeared at the family’s childhood home the day she died.

“She said she would make the conversation quick and would call me right back,” Baal testified.

Prosecutors argued that Lamesch never called Baal back because Plote had killed her and then set the home on fire.

Kruse argued that Plote intentionally put an entire neighborhood at risk when he set the home on fire after killing Lamesch. She said the crimes were especially “sick” because Plote had been employed in a profession that was supposed to help people.

She argued for a life sentence and said evidence at the trial indicated that Lamesch had died while fighting for her life and her baby’s life.

A forensic scientist with the Illinois State Police Forensic Lab in Rockford testified that Plote’s DNA was found in fingernail scrapings taken from Lamesch’s right and left hands. He also said semen found in Lamesch’s vagina fit Plote’s profile, as did cheek swabs taken from the dead baby.

Forensic pathologists Dr. Mark Peters and Dr. Amanda Youmans told jurors that Lamesch was strangled before firefighters recovered her from her burning home.

They testified that abrasions on Lamesch’s face and scalp and bruises on her legs and thighs all occurred before she died, and no elevated levels of carbon monoxide were found in Lamesch’s blood. Her “full-term male fetus” had no abnormalities. Lamesch also had minimal thermal wounds, they testified.

Youmans said Lamesch’s neck, face, eyes and larynx all showed signs of strangulation. Hemorrhages in the muscles in her neck also were caused by pressure being applied to that area, and when she cleaned soot and debris from Lamesch’s body, she discovered more injuries that she said were consistent with “blunt force.”

Those injuries, Youmans said, were found on Lamesch’s forehead, head and temple and were consistent with “multiple blows to her head.” She said her injuries were consistent with “fighting back.”

Dixon argued at the sentencing that Plote had spent his entire career helping people as a paramedic and also had been an Eagle Scout. He asked the court to consider Plote’s “zero criminal history” before rendering a decision.

When asked by Roe if he wanted to make a statement before the sentence was given, Plote softly said, “I share the pain and loss of Melissa and Barrett.”

Lamesch was a 2011 graduate of Oregon High School and an emergency medical technician at Trace Ambulance Service in Tinley Park. She moved back into the family home in October 2020 and was scheduled to have her labor induced Nov. 27, 2020.

Court records indicate that Plote has been transferred from the Ogle County Jail to the Northern Reception and Classification Center at Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet.