Several high-profile cases moving toward a 2024 resolution

A number of court cases will move forward toward a conclusion in the Sauk Valley in 2024; here are some of those high-profile cases:

Appeal pending in Rock Falls boxer’s murder

A Rock Falls woman sentenced to 45 years for stabbing her self-described best friend to death with a kitchen knife is awaiting a decision on her appeal, filed in the Fourth District Appellate Court in Springfield.

Nichole R. Elsesser, 49, was convicted Aug. 5, 2022, of first-degree murder in the death of boxer Tracy Russell, 53, and was sentenced Feb. 1. She is appealing the conviction and the length of the sentence.

Russell was killed Dec. 15, 2019, at a home along the Rock River in rural Rock Falls, where the two got into an argument that turned physical.

Elsesser stabbed the well-known area boxer after he punched her several times in the back of the head. She then stabbed Russell four times with a steak knife, first in his back shoulder, then, as he swung at her, in his abdomen below his rib cage, in his right upper arm and his left thigh, investigators said.

The wound to his thigh cut an artery, and Russell bled to death on the porch at the home in the 22000 block of Brooks Road, as other people at the house that day, including Elsesser, drove away.

When they returned an hour later, Russell was dead.

Elsesser told investigators that she thought she had stabbed him with a pencil.

In her appeal, she contends that her conviction should be overturned because she was acting in self-defense and was not shown to have knowingly caused death or great bodily harm.

She also argues that it otherwise should be reduced to second-degree murder based on provocation, or to involuntary manslaughter on the basis that she acted recklessly in stabbing Russell.

Elsesser also argues that 45 years was improper because it’s practically a death sentence, and because the minimum sentence provided adequate retribution and better met the nature and circumstances.

The case has been presented to the court; there is no set date for the ruling to be issued.

Except for a 2006 misdemeanor conviction in Whiteside County for resisting arrest, Elsesser has no felony criminal history in Whiteside, Lee or Ogle counties.

Jury trial set in Sterling triple homicide/arson case

When Steven W. Coleman is next set to appear in Whiteside County Court, it will be four years and a month since investigators say he set a Sterling apartment building on fire, killing two children and a 49-year-old woman.

Investigators say the 44-year-old Rock Falls man set the fire at Western Apartments, 908 W. Fourth St., about 12:30 a.m. June 1, 2020, in a drug deal gone bad.

Celina Serrano, 13; her cousin Shyla Walker, 8, of Davenport, Iowa; and Carrie A. (Hall) Hose, a 49-year-old neighbor, died in the blaze.

Coleman, who was on parole at the time, is charged with six counts of first-degree murder, each punishable by 20 to 60 years or up to life in prison.

He also faces four arson-related charges: three aggravated arson charges that carry terms of six to 30 years in prison and one residential arson charge that carries a sentence of four to 15 years.

He remains in Whiteside County jail on $1 million bond.

His next, and what is supposed to be his last, pretrial hearing is June 26, with a jury trial set for July 15.

On Jan. 24, Judge Trish Senneff told attorneys that there would be no more continuances, but Coleman’s public defender, Jennifer Kelly, was appointed an associate judge in the 14th Judicial Circuit on Feb. 9, and her replacement, Dana McCormick, needed time to prepare for Coleman’s defense.

Sterling felon sentenced to 60 years for murder, also appealing

A longtime Sterling felon was sentenced Oct. 19 to 60 years in prison for shooting and killing a man on May 1, 2021.

After a five-day trial in August, a Whiteside County jury found Michael W.T. Bennett, 37, guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the death of Joshua N. Hamrick, 39, who was shot in his backyard in the 900 block of West 19th Street in Sterling.

Bennett received 35 years for first-degree murder, with a 25-year enhancement for using a gun.

In November, he filed an appeal of his sentence in the Fourth District Appellate Court in Springfield. Briefs in that case have yet to be filed.

Prophetstown anti-abortion activist awaits sentencing

An elderly Prophetstown anti-abortion activist who pleaded guilty to trying to burn down a clinic where abortions will be performed is set to be sentenced Feb. 5 in federal court.

Philip J. Buyno, 73, faces up 20 years in prison, and a fine of up to $250,000. There is no parole in the federal system.

Buyno’s request to plead no contest, in which he would have accepted a conviction without admitting his guilt, was denied on Aug. 30; he requested a change of plea hearing on Sept. 14 and pleaded guilty to attempted arson on Nov. 14.

He was indicted June 6 for the May 20 incident in Danville.

Buyno admitted to planning and attempting to burn down the clinic, and told investigators that, said if given the chance, he’d do it again.

It was among the reasons the judge did not accept his plea of no contest.

Buyno, who said he was a member of an anti-abortion “rescue group” that prevents abortion clinics from being established, backed his car into the entrance of the building, which was being remodeled into a reproductive health clinic, around 4:30 a.m.

His car was filled with containers of gasoline, wood and old tires he planned to use to burn down the building.

His effort, which was caught on video surveillance cameras, failed when his car doors became jammed shut by the debris, and he couldn’t get out or reach a container of gasoline he had thrown out the window.

He was extricated and arrested, and remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshal’s Service pending sentencing.

Defense gets more time in 7-year-old double homicide case

A Stillman Valley man charged with killing his ex-wife and their 3-year-old son in 2016 has been given more time for a defense expert to evaluate forensic reports expected to be used by prosecutors at his trial.

On Dec. 12, Christopher DeRango, the attorney for Duane Meyer, 41, told Ogle County Judge John “Ben” Roe that their expert needed more time to examine data provided by the Ogle County state’s attorney.

“Because of the cyber data age there are some antiquated file formats,” DeRango said. “There are hundreds of them.”

Meyer is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated arson and one count of concealment of a homicidal death in connection with the Oct. 19, 2016, Byron house fire in which Margaret “Maggie” (Rosko) Meyer, 31, was found dead. Their son, 3-year-old Amos Meyer, also was home at the time of the fire and later died.

Charges against Meyer were filed in October 2019.

DeRango said the defense’s expert would need until the end of January to compete the analysis.

The next court date is Feb. 15. Meyer is in the Ogle County Correctional Center on a $10 million bond.

March trial date set in death of pregnant Mt. Morris woman

A tentative trial date of March 18 is set for a Malta man accused of killing a Mount Morris woman and her unborn child then setting her home on fire to conceal their deaths

Matthew T. Plote, 36, faces 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 in the death of Melissa Lamesch, killed on Nov. 25, 2020. The baby was due two days later.

Plote is in the Ogle County Correctional Center on $10 million bond, where he has been held since his March 9, 2022, arrest. His next hearing is Feb.15.

Firefighters found Lamesch about 4:30 p.m. on the kitchen floor; she was pronounced dead at the scene despite lifesaving measures.

Third anniversary of death of Oregon 7-year-old approaches

Defense attorneys for an Oregon woman accused of killing her 7-year-old son on Feb. 17, 2021, have subpoenaed the boy’s father seeking any items he may have in connection with the case.

Sarah Safranek, 36, is charged with five counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery in the February 2021 suffocation death of her 7-year-old son, Nathaniel Burton. An autopsy showed the boy also had a ruptured liver.

Bryan Burton, 37, must respond to the Ogle County Public Defender’s Office by Jan. 13. The next hearing is Jan. 24.

Safranek has been held in the Ogle County Correctional Center on $2 million bond since her arrest on April 21, 2021; she was indicted that May 4.

Nathaniel, a first-grade student at Oregon Elementary School, was found unresponsive and not breathing about 2:30 a.m. Feb. 17, 2021, in his bed at his home in the 400 block of South 10th Street. He was pronounced dead later that day at KSB Hospital in Dixon.

Source: Lee, Whiteside, Ogle, Fourth District Appellate and Central Illinois District court records, and court coverage.