Rock Falls murder trial pushed to Thursday by lead detective’s illness, ongoing pretrial motion discussions

MORRISON – An ill detective and an abundance of pretrial motions – covering everything from whether to permit a jury to hear a 911 call to the possibility the Rock Falls Police Department violated investigative protocol and what that could mean – has led to a two-day delay in the start of a Whiteside County first-degree murder trial.

Jury selection was to begin Tuesday, May 13, in the trial of Kyle Cooper of Rock Falls, who is accused of fatally stabbing Daniel J. Gordon outside of a Rock Falls residence in the early morning hours of Feb. 14. Cooper is charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery in connection with Gordon’s death.

[  Rock Falls fatal stabbing trial delayed until May ]

Cooper has been held in the Whiteside County Jail since Feb. 14, when he turned himself in at the county jail a few hours after Gordon’s death. Cooper pleaded not guilty to the charges and demanded a speedy trial.

The trial was first set for April 8 and then was continued until May 13 at the request of prosecutors who were waiting for DNA testing results to arrive from the state crime lab.

The state asked for another continuance on Thursday for the same reason, asking that the trial be pushed to June 10.

Whiteside County Circuit Court Judge James Heuerman denied the motion to continue requested Friday. He did so after learning the DNA tests had not been started and after agreeing with the defense’s argument that prosecutors, who knew the state crime lab was resisting testing the items because of a directive by Heuerman to the Illinois State Police that the DNA testing be video recorded, did not show it had taken steps to get the testing done. Defense attorney James Mertes maintained the prosecution could have used an independent lab to test the items.

Also on Friday, Heuerman denied a request from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office that the ISP be allowed to intervene in the case. Just after granting a prosecution motion in early April that consumptive testing be allowed, Heuerman granted the defense’s request that videotaping be done to memorialize how the ISP carried out the consumptive testing, which is a process that, by its very nature, uses up samples of DNA during the testing procedure.

[ Judge: State police must video record consumptive DNA, blood testing in Rock Falls stabbing case ]

The ISP immediately turned the matter over to its legal department, with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office filing the petition to intervene. The ISP has maintained that it has its own set of testing command protocols, and allowing anyone in for videotaping would be cause to shut the lab down to prevent any other testing from being caught on camera. As such, the items have not been tested.

Heuerman ultimately decided Friday, after talking with State’s Attorney Colleen Buckwalter and Mertes, that the trial would proceed without DNA testing results.

At that point, 16 pretrial motions were brought before Heuerman, including five from prosecutors and 11 from Mertes. Two Rock Falls police officers and one ISP crime scene investigator testified Friday afternoon under questioning by Mertes, in which he peppered them with questions about how they processed the scene of the stabbing. Mertes specifically said the department failed to process a white SUV, in which he said part of the altercation took place.

Questioning of a third Rock Falls police officer, who is the lead homicide detective in the case, was pushed to Monday, May 12, but then delayed until Wednesday because she was ill.

Cooper, 36, is charged with stabbing Gordon during an early-morning confrontation in a Rock Falls home’s driveway in the 600 block of West 20th Street. Cooper and Gordon knew each other because Cooper’s previous girlfriend was dating Gordon. The woman was with Gordon the night of Feb. 13, when they crossed paths with Cooper while out in the Rock Fall bar scene that night and began feuding.

Gordon, 27, was found unresponsive with multiple abdominal stab wounds about 2 a.m. just outside the residence and next to the white SUV, driven by his girlfriend and in which he had been a front-seat passenger just before the fight. Gordon died later that day at CGH Medical Center in Sterling, according to officials.

Cooper, wearing blood-stained clothes, turned himself in at the Whiteside County Sheriff’s Office later that morning and was charged with aggravated battery, police said. He was formally charged four days later with murder and an additional count of aggravated battery.

Pretrial motions will continue to be considered during a court hearing beginning at 10 a.m. Wednesday, with testimony from Rock Falls Detective Autumn Day to begin at 1 p.m.

Jury selection will begin at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, and continue through Friday. Opening statements most likely will begin Monday, May 19, with the trial to continue through the entire week and into the week of May 26.