Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Christopher Vaughn got separate life sentences for the murders of his wife and three children.
Right before a Will County judge dropped four life sentences on Christopher Vaughn, his grief-stricken mother-in-law wondered aloud why he couldn't have abandoned his wife and three children instead of killing them all. "What a coward," said Susan Phillips, the mother of Vaughn's slain wife, Kimberly Vaughn. "If you do not want your family, divorce is always the first option, or even just walking away," Phillips said from the witness stand during Christopher Vaughn's sentencing hearing Tuesday morning. Christopher Vaughn, 38, wanted to shed his family so he could start a new life in the Yukon wilderness with an unwitting stripper. In June 2007, he packed his 34-year-old wife and their three children—Blake, 8, Cassandra, 11, and Abigayle, …
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Theddias LeSure, 25, formerly of Montgomery, had been accused of pouring gasoline on a family member and setting him on fire while he was alive. A second family member died in the fire; two others were severely injured.
Theddias LeSure once faced the death penalty for allegedly dousing his sleeping cousin with gasoline and lighting him on fire when he awoke, starting a fire that killed the cousin and LeSure's brother. On Friday, the 25-year-old former Montgomery man accepted a negotiated plea in which he will serve 50 years in prison for murdering his cousin, Maurice Vaughn, 32, in 2009, according to a news release Kendall County State's Attorney Eric Weis issued Tuesday. After the death penalty was abolished, he could have faced life in prison if convicted of murdering Vaughn (his cousin) and Matthew LeSure, 26 (his brother). Weis said all the victims or their families discussed the plea agreement extensively before the deal was reached. Vaughn's mother…
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Several new laws take effect this month. Here's a rundown of what you need to know.
- GOVERNMENT
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Wednesday, July 6, 2011
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois newest laws cover the spectrum from death to taxes to antifreeze. Illinois became the 16th state to abolish the death penalty, beginning Friday. Jeremy Schroeder, executive director of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, a grassroots organization that pushed for the abolition of the state's death penalty since 1976, said Gov. Pat Quinn, who signed the bill into law in March, ordered life sentences for anyone on death row, including defendants in a handful of death penalty cases statewide. "It's certainly kind of a sad waste of taxpayer money, knowing that those people aren't going to be placed on death row," Schroeder said. However, the law’s effective date likely will go unnoticed, he added. "…
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Brian LeSure, 30, is the brother of Theddias LeSure, charged with two June 2009 murders.
A Boulder Hill man has been charged with aggravated battery against two children, Kendall County Sheriff’s deputies said. Brian C. LeSure, 30, of the 0-100 block of Rocky Way in Boulder Hill, was charged after Kendall County deputies were called in to assist the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services with a child abuse investigation at that home at about 2:40 p.m. on Monday, April 4, Sheriff's Deputy Craig French said. Investigators found bruises on two children living there, a five-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl, French said. LeSure, the live-in boyfriend of the children’s mother, said he had struck the children on the buttocks with a leather belt eight or nine times, according to French. The children were taken to Rush-…
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Kendall County judge remands Montgomery man accused of double murder to state mental health facility for up to a year.
A Kendall County judge ruled Thursday that a Montgomery man accused of murder is unfit to stand trial, and will be sent to a state mental health facility for up to a year. Theddias LeSure, 23, of the 2400 block of Riva Ridge Road, is charged with 28 counts of murder, attempted murder and arson for allegedly setting the fire that killed his cousin Maurice Vaughn, 32, and his brother, Matthew LeSure, 26, in June 2009. On Thursday, Kendall County State's Attorney Eric Weis presented three reports on LeSure's mental health from defense and prosecution psychiatrists. The reports were filed in June, July and September of last year. All of the reports, he said, found LeSure mentally unfit to stand trial, which is why Weis agreed to waive the …
Monday, January 31, 2011
Theddias LeSure's fitness hearing is set for next week, but Gov. Pat Quinn may sign repeal of death penalty at any time.
A judge may decide next week whether a Montgomery man is fit to face the death penalty, while Gov. Pat Quinn may soon decide to sign a bill repealing it. On Feb. 17, Theddias LeSure, 23, of the 2400 block of Riva Ridge Road, likely will learn whether he will stand trial in the June 13, 2009, deaths of two of his family members, or will be remanded to a state institution for mental health treatment. Although it is classified as a status hearing, Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis said the judge “may resolve the issue (on the 17th) as well.” LeSure has been charged with 28 counts of murder, attempted murder and arson for allegedly setting the fire that killed his cousin, Maurice Vaughn, 32, and his brother, Matthew LeSure, 26. …
Samara
3:07 am on Monday, April 15, 2013
JAIL.PRISON Please don't put him in P.C. I hope they throw this monster with the general population I wouldn't want to be him..u know what they do to child killers..for with this public pop, he'd wish an cry for the death penalty . leave him in there to rot. more ›