Judge orders new trial in Joliet Outlaws murder case

In a rare move, a Will County judge granted a defense motion for a new trial in a case in which a jury found a man guilty of killing a woman at the Joliet Outlaws clubhouse.

Judge Dave Carlson based his decision Wednesday on the “cumulative effect” of all the errors by prosecutors and himself in the 2022 trial.

“I’ve never done this,” Carlson said.

Jeremy Boshears, 38, began to softly cry and made the sign of the cross after Carlson announced his decision.

In 2022, a jury found Boshears guilty of killing Katie Kearns, 24, in 2017 at the Outlaws clubhouse in Joliet Township. The jury also found Boshears guilty of concealing her homicidal death from authorities by stowing her body at a barn in Kankakee County.

An investigation by the Will County Sheriff’s Office led to the arrest of Boshears in 2017.

Carlson said he was not going to grant Boshears an acquittal – which would have overturned the jury’s verdict – but he would order a new trial based on what he considered the volume of errors committed during the trial.

Carlson said that with the decision, he was not making a finding of prosecutors committing misconduct.

“I am not saying anybody did anything intentional,” he said, later adding, “I, too, am at fault for this.”