Joliet Township murder trial expected to begin Wednesday

The trial against a Coal City man charged with the 2017 murder of a 24-year-old woman may not begin until Wednesday.

Prosecutors and a defense attorney were scheduled to begin the trial of Jeremy Boshears, 36, on Monday. Instead, both sides spent most of the afternoon sorting out what evidence jurors will hear in the upcoming trial.

On Nov. 20, 2017, Boshears was charged with the murder of Kaitlyn “Katie” Kearns. Prosecutors accused Boshears of shooting Kearns in the head with a gun on Nov. 13, 2017 in Joliet Township.

Boshears also stands charged of concealing Kearns’ homicidal death by parking a Jeep that contained her body in the pole barn in St. Anne, a town in Kankakee County.

Last Thursday, Boshears’ attorney Chuck Bretz filed 19 motions to exclude evidence in the case and block testimony from several witnesses, largely on the grounds they had no relevance to the case and would be prejudicial against his client.

Judge Dave Carlson heard about seven of those motions on Monday. He either granted, partly granted or took some of those motions under advisement until he could come to a final decision.

Following Bretz’s objections, Carlson ruled that prosecutors cannot show jurors text messages between Boshears and his wife Rachel Boshears.

Will County Assistant State’s Attorney Steven Platek said he wanted to introduce the texts to support the state’s case that Boshears had problems with his marriage and he was obsessed with Kearns.

Platek read messages sent by Rachel Boshears where she asked her husband about his whereabouts and if he was OK.

Bretz accused the state of “grasping at the straws” by wanting to introduce texts that were irrelevant to the case and also confidential under spousal privilege.

Bretz objected to the state presenting texts between Kearns, an ex-boyfriend and several of her peers, saying they were also irrelevant to the case and his client was not aware of them.

Carlson partially granted Bretz’s motion to block prosecutors from presenting texts from Kearns’ ex-boyfriend but delayed a full ruling on other texts involving Kearns’ peers.

Platek largely argued those texts were circumstantial evidence to show Kearns could not have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Bretz plans to have an expert testify that she died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“This is a circumstantial case,” Platek said.

Bretz told Carlson that the state was trying to disprove his defense before he can present it to the jury.

Carlson told both parties many of their disputes over evidence can be addressed during trial. He also told them the case is not about Kearns’ mental health issues.

“This is not a trial of the alleged victim’s life, behavior,” Carlson said.