JACKSON CO.—Sources in Jackson County are reporting that there’s been a motorcycle crash near Giant City Park.

Those working the accident learned that it was reported the cycle was going too fast on a curve and went over an embankment. The accident is reported to have occurred around 8 p.m.

The male cyclist, James Greenwood, 36, has been confirmed by authorities as dead upon arrival at Memorial Hospital in Carbondale. The female on the cycle, Greenwood’s fiancé Shelly Dwyer, also 36, was reported as being lifeflighted from MHC to St. Louis University Hospital with severe injuries.

Michael Carr

Carr, the former U.S. assistant prosecutor who helped put away Raymond Martin, former Gallatin County sheriff, is now the head honcho in Jackson, winning the state’s attorney’s race back in November and moving right through his duties to go after the bad guys in his county, of which there are a lot.

However, a huge contingent across the nation is thinking right now that Carr has the wrong ”bad guy” in the case of Melissa Beth Vistain.

Vistain, 29, of Carbondale, has been charged with a single count of Filing a False Report. But it isn’t just any false report. Vistain is accused of filing a false report of rape last year. The charge was leveled against her May 3, 2012, by former prosecutor Mike Wepseic, after she’d made a report of being “drugged and held captive,” all the while being sexually assaulted, against a fellow following the incident which occurred over the weekend of March 31.

Victim’s rights groups across the country have jumped on this. They are horrified that ANY prosecutor, Wepseic (who retired last year, opening the way for Carr to run) or Carr, would pursue such charges against a woman who has been violated. They descended upon Carr in force recently, according to an article in the Southern Illinoisan, sending letters of strong reproach against Carr for even thinking of following through with Vistain’s trial, which is set to start March 18, 2013. The letters had the following tone, as noted in the Southern:

The Women’s Center in Carbondale and 22 other groups sent Carr a letter asking him to drop the charges because prosecuting “a sexual assault victim is devastating to the victim and chilling for current and future sexual assault victims.”

“The clear message of this prosecution is that survivors of sexual assault must be able to prove their own innocence or face prosecution when they report a sexual assault crime,” the March 6 letter to Carr stated.

However, a little more digging into the matter shows the probable reason why Carr is pursuing the case.

Seems that Vistain “spent a weekend with a longtime male friend” over those three days including March 31, this in Murphysboro…and her husband apparently didn’t know about it. Until she filed a report of rape against the “male friend.” Whose identity hasn’t been disclosed in mainstream media reports, but which is no doubt on file and will be brought out in court.

Apparently the investigation turned up that there was no sexual assault of any sort. Maybe it was all consensual, maybe it wasn’t; there wasn’t enough there to pursue charges against the man involved, according to Wepseic. But evidently there’s enough for someone as astute as Carr is to pursue the case against Vistain.

So what do you think—was Vistain caught with another guy and decided to falsely claim “rape”? Or the victim’s rights groups, who think it’s better to always err on the side of the purported victim and treat every claim of sexual assault as the real deal until it can be sorted out in court, the ones who are on target in this case?

JACKSON CO.—Evidence that was heavily slanted by ISP testimony failed to sway a six-person coroner’s jury into believing that a young woman’s death a year ago in Carbondale was suicide.

And the tint of the entire matter, coupled with the business the proposed suspect’s father is involved in, has given many citizens across many southern Illinois counties cause to be concerned, as it appears that “connections” will cause sworn officers to prevaricate—if not outright lie—on the stand, and for public officials tasked with seeing justice done to overlook the prevarication.

Background

A Jackson County coroner’s inquest, held January 31, 2013 as an investigative tool in the death of Molly Young, was the scene of the questionable testimony.

Young was 22 when she was shot to death in the home of her on-again/off-again boyfriend, Richie Minton, 21, in Carbondale.

Her body was discovered in Minton’s room on the morning of March 24, 2012; it was determined she’d died a few hours before she was found lying in proximity of Minton’s bed.

But through a series of events that may have been ensured by Minton’s father, Richard ‘Flip’ Minton, and his mother Kathy Knapp-Minton, both of whom work in the law enforcement field in neighboring Franklin County, proper investigative procedures were not undertaken by responding law enforcement, both before and after it was finally determined that Minton could have been the only person present when Young was shot to death.

Richie Minton himself worked as a dispatcher at the Carbondale police department.

All along, Young’s death has been at least alluded to by law enforcement in the area as being a ‘suicide,’ despite the nearly-impossible way this would have had to have been accomplished considering how the handgun used would have had to have been held, and the bullet trajectory that was ultimately determined.

Yet that’s what coroner’s juries are for: determining, for a death certificate and as an investigative tool, cause and manner of death.

And this is what three men and three women from Jackson County finally found on the afternoon of the 31st, although their decision on the manner of death was a little less than what officials in charge of the whole thing seemed bent on putting to rest.

Of the three “manners” of death from which they could have chosen—homicide, suicide or undetermined—the jury chose ‘undetermined.’

And they qualified it by adding that this ‘undetermined’ status was reached “due to lack of evidence presented”…even though it was the state police’s finest investigators who gave the evidence.

Approximately 60 people waited outside the courtroom on the upper level of the Jackson County courthouse on Thursday, January 31, 2013, while coroner Tom Kupferer mistakenly kept them out of selection of his coroner’s jury, which would determine the cause and manner of death of Molly Young. All were allowed back in when Disclosure staff alerted prosecutor Mike Carr that they were being wrongfully excluded from jury selection.

Befuddled proceedings

Apparently, Jackson County hasn’t had a coroner’s inquest or jury in quite some time.

The jury had to be seated, and that, like everything else in Young’s case, was a debacle.

Coroner and doctor Tom Kupferer demanded that the packed courtroom be cleared of everyone except those residents of Jackson County who had been called for jury duty.

This caused a measure of consternation amongst Young’s family members and friends, but was addressed by the only media present that day who knew that what Kupferer was doing was wrong—Disclosure—whose representative asked of new Jackson County prosecutor Mike Carr to cite the statute that allowed a coroner to keep the media out of a proceeding that was neither civil nor criminal, but was investigative in nature and as such, open to the public.

Carr left momentarily, then came back to the scene, entered the courtroom where the proceedings of jury selection were underway, and brought them to a halt.

He then stepped out and announced that media and immediate family of Young’s were allowed back in to the courtroom to watch the proceedings from the beginning.

Kupferer was forced to start over. Coroner’s jury selection is by drawn lots, and is not as complicated as petit jury proceedings, so it didn’t take long, and once the unselected Jackson County residents were dismissed, more observers were allowed back in the courtroom.

In all there were about 60 people present to watch the proceedings, including several Illinois State Police agents who were not present to testify, but merely to observe—somewhat nervously, it seemed—the inquest.

Basics outlined; Rice called

With Kupferer in the judge’s seat, he read to the juror the basics of the case outlining how Young’s body was found on the floor of Minton’s bedroom shortly after 9 a.m. on the morning of March 24, 2012; how Amber Pellegrini at Carbondale dispatch got the 911 call that stated Minton had “awakened to find Molly unresponsive” and he “believed she had overdosed until he found a gunshot wound.”

He also noted how Minton was supposed to have been at work at 7 a.m. that morning but failed to show up. Paramedics arrived and found the decedent, Kupferer said, noting a fatal gunshot wound to the left side of her head. They subsequently notified Kupferer, who arrived and discussed the case with on-duty officers, including those from ISP Zone 7 investigators.

Kupferer then called the first witness to the stand, Capt. Scott Rice of ISP.

Rice, who almost lost his position with ISP some years ago after first poaching turkey, then shooting two mushroom hunters in the Shawnee National Forest, noted he was the incident commander for this case. He spoke very briefly of the facts already in evidence about Young’s body having been found when, where and how it was. The jury had no questions for Rice, and he stepped down.

Autopsy described

At this point Kupferer described the autopsy he conducted on Young’s body, stating who was present and how the chain of evidence in bringing her body to the morgue had been maintained.

He described Young as wearing sleepwear black pants, and a maroon Saluki’s sweatshirt with a St. Louis Cardinals t-shirt beneath it.

The “large gunshot wound” in the left frontal region of Young’s head was described; brain matter and coagulated blood was in her blonde hair, and facial asymmetry was present as a result of the wound.

Her hands were bagged with brown paper bags to preserve evidence; the bags were removed and clippings obtained of her fingernails, with gunshot residue tests being conducted on both.

Kupferer went into great detail describing the size, circumference, and qualities of the gunshot wound, including powder and burns found in the lower half of the wound, where her hair was singed.

Interestingly, a pattern abrasion was found on her right temple area, which Kupferer described as a “slightly red indentation.” A few were also found on the left temple area. Without saying so, it appeared that Kupferer was describing places where the gun barrel had been placed on Young’s head before actually landing on the final location where the shot was fired.

Describing the wound

The bullet had entered the area in the left temple and tracked backwards and slightly down, through the left cerebral and frontal/temporal lobes. It struck the endocranium and left comminuted fracutres in the skull, then ricocheted back along the top of the brain through the left occipital and left parietal lobes of the brain, coming to rest in the parasagittal sinus.

The bullet was retrieved, as well as the jacket from which it had separated. The core and fragments were found, some of the fragments in the base of the cranium.

Also interestingly, Kupferer reported a slight bluish contusion on the top part of Young’s left boot, and below her knee, and a small one on the left thigh. There were otherwise no abnormalities noted from the autopsy.

Kupferer added that it was his conclusion that the final cause of death was a “gunshot wound to the head,” which he probably should not have noted at that point, as that’s what the coroner’s jury was there to decide, in part; but that, it appeared, was just another of the many mistakes the man made on that day.

CSI’s vague testimony

Illinois State Police CSI Danny Glover was then called, testifying with some vagueness to how he found items and features at the scene, including Young’s car, and what he recalled about them.

His testimony was otherwise very brief and focused on the layout of Minton’s very small bedroom, and how Young had been found “laying on the floor between the bed and the north wall, with a handgun and casing nearby. Glover described blood splatters found on the end of the barrel of the gun, and blood spots in the carpet and at the bottom of the closet door near where Young had been shot, then a blood trail across the floor where the body had been moved, explaining that Minton had moved the body to perform CPR. A small amount of blood had been found on his comforter, and on some pajama pants that had been found on the bathroom floor.

Lead agent’s testimony

ISP Zone 7 investigator Aaron Cooper was next to the stand, and at the outset of his testimony described the scene at the apartment as he found it upon arrival, and how he had interviewed Minton’s roommate, Wes Romack, who had worked overnight at Panera bakery in town and had come home at about 5:45 to see a woman’s shoes and purse in the front of the apartment, but when he looked in on Minton, he saw the man with the covers pulled up to his chin, and no one else.

Romack was up for a little while after arriving home, surfing the ‘net and playing guitar, before going to bed.

Minton came to him a few hours later, frantic, telling him to call 911 because Minton couldn’t find his phone, and he’d awakened to find Young shot in his room.

Then, inexplicably, Cooper, under questioning by the coroner, veered into testimony about Young’s and Minton’s relationship over the past two years, and how many times they’d broken up and gotten back together.

And he then testified that Young had recently had a “non-medical” abortion by taking an abortion pill, this he knew per a receipt that had been found in Young’s possessions dated March 9, 2012.

Being oblivious to the fact that there had been no testimony given about any sign of an abortion or previous pregnancy during the autopsy, Cooper continued to testify about how Minton hadn’t wanted her to have an abortion, as he was worried about the soul of the child being stuck in purgatory.

At no time did Cooper offer how he’d come about that information, and at no time did Kupferer ask whether the receipt, which was the sole ‘evidence’ of this ‘fact,’ could have belonged to someone else with whom Young was close or may have even purchased the abortion pill for.

Agent’s slanted testimony

Then, in the most slanted testimony of the day—as he did not offer verification of how they were obtained, chain of evidence, or an affidavit in support from anyone at the phone agency—Cooper spent several minutes testifying about multiple texts that supposedly passed between Young and Minton, Young and Romack, Minton and another girl with whom he’d had a relationship, Chloe Benedict, and other girls and Romack, all in the days, hours and minutes leading up to the gunshot.

These texts supposedly outlined how Young was trying to kill herself with overdoses of prescription and over-the-counter medications; and how suicidal she was.

In these texts, Cooper notably called Molly Young “Young,” and Richie Minton “Richie.” This was notable, because this effort had the effect of distancing the listener (the jurors) from Molly Young, and familiarizing them with Richie Minton. To have been used in the way it was, though, was entirely too obvious for an ISP agent.

Cooper also testified as to the many calls from Amber Pellegrini Minton received when he didn’t show up for work the morning of the shooting, and how he had partied the night before, coming in at about 2:30 extremely drunk after failing to get Benedict to sleep with him.

In a brief set of questions from Kupferer that Cooper answered more along the lines of reality—and which was why, likely, it was kept brief—Cooper testified that the weapon, a 1911 semi-automatic .45 caliber handgun, was legally Minton’s, and that he’d kept it in a locked box, but there were no fingerprints to lift off the box, bullets or weapon. He also testified that even after testing, ISP had found themselves unable to determine a gunshot residue pattern on anyone’s hands, and as a result, they were “unable to definitively say who fired the gun.”

‘Suicidal’

To counter this, Kupferer launched right into a question about evidence that Young was suicidal, and Cooper obliged by reading page after page after page of what he claimed—again, without offering any to the jury, and without any kind of affidavit from anyone in Young’s family about the veracity of the material referenced as actually being generated by her—was her “journals” over the past several years.

In these, Young described herself as suicidal since age 5, and described repeatedly how she hated herself and how she “had a hard life.” She claimed that everyone in her family was emotionally, mentally and physically abusive to her…but not once was any explanation offered as to how, or more importantly, any evidence offered as to why. There were no DCFS reports, no reports from school counselors, no reports from psychiatrists or anyone trained to make diagnoses…just pages and pages of typical teenage angst turned on its ear by allegations of repeated vague abuse, and the desire to kill herself.

In the journals, Cooper mentioned that Young was obsessed with demons, and “thought about them a lot, telling people that; someone said Richie believe that, so she was going along with it.”

A “suicide note” of sorts (“of sorts,” only because it was vague in reference to an actual act of suicide, and was undated) was presented.

It was also mentioned that Young had a Tumblr blogspot page, wherein she wrote of suicide frequently.

No sound heard, excused

Cooper, when questioned about it by Kupferer, noted that there were no signs in Minton’s room of anyone fighting or struggling.

He attempted to excuse the fact that no one had heard a gunshot by way of stating that if the barrel were pressed tightly against Young’s head, it would have a “muffling” effect much like a silencer does.

“I’ve known of a case where someone who was drunk slept through such a gunshot,” Cooper testified. “He (Minton) could have slept through it. When it occurred, and if he was at such a level of inebriation, it’s possible he briefly awoke, didn’t know what it was, and went back to sleep.”

At this point, the family of Molly Young’s, via their spokesperson, Charlie LaMont (a former police officer in Mt. Vernon), were allowed to ask three questions of Cooper.

Lamont asked if Cooper were aware that Minton, too, had a Tumblr page, and that approximately two months prior to the incident, he’d written on it a quote from the Son of Sam murderer, which stated “I’ll make drops of lead fall from her head.”

Cooper replied that Minton’s computer wasn’t obtained until May of 2012.

LaMont then asked if there were any pattern of blood spatter on Minton’s bed; Cooper replied that he wasn’t trained in that field, and the comforter was sent to a lab but there was no final conclusion as to how blood evidence got there, whether it was spatter or transfer; same with the pants in the bathroom.

LaMont asked if Cooper was aware of any drug paraphernalia or contraband occurring in the apartment on that day; Cooper advised that drug agents saw a hookah used for smoking tobacco in the apartment, but there was no reason at the time to believe it was pertinent to the crime of Young’s death.

Evidence washed away?

LaMont asked Kupferer if he could ask another question, and was permitted to do so.

He asked if Cooper were aware that Carbondale police disturbed the scene by allowing Minton to wash his hands and change his clothes prior to the arrival of ISP agents.

“A report said Richie Minton was emerging from the bathroom and came out wearing different clothes, having picked up an article of clothing from the kitchen floor,” LaMont said. “After he was at the Carbondale police department, when his parents and attorney arrived they agreed to allow CSI to collect the clothing, and then did a gunshot residue test. His attorney Terry Green said, ‘Well, he’s washed his hands.’”

Cooper allowed that such action would remove gunshot residue present on hands, but because of the small size of the room, the residue “doesn’t come out in a defined motion; it just goes all over the room,” which would account for it being on his pants, shirt and shorts, all being articles of clothing in his bedroom.

Gunshot residue was found on Young’s right sleeve cuff of her sweatshirt, but none on her left shoulder, Cooper claimed, which “shows gunshot residue analysis is not reliable.”

Kupferer asked Cooper about where the gun was kept, and was told it was in a lockbox with a key pad and a key in case the battery went out on the pad. The magazines were in the box.

Kupferer then asked, as punctuation on the testimony, whether Young was right or left handed, and was told she was right handed.

Kupferer asked Cooper to explain how a right-handed person could reach around the front of her head and shoot herself with a large weapon in the left side of her head.

Cooper did some contortions, coming up with a two-handed grip that may or may not have been how a person could do such a thing, but would account for gunshot residue landing on everything in the room except Young’s left hand and left shoulder.

Jurors questions; then returning the verdict

Jurors asked intelligent questions about measurements of gunshot residue on clothing (and were told “there’s no way to measure that”); whether Young had any training with weapons (she did not); and approximate time of death (best guess would be about 4:45 a.m.).

At 3:25, after nearly three hours of testimony, the jury retired to the jury room to render their decision on the cause and manner of death.

They returned at 4:10 to state that the cause was a gunshot wound to the head; and that the manner was “undetermined due to lack of evidence.”

The coroner noted that a death certificate would be issued with “undetermined” on it…although one had already been issued last year to the family with incorrect information all over it, including inaccurate time of death (10:50 a.m.) and place of death (Young’s own home). Kupferer, when called on it, said it was the fault of the funeral home. The funeral home, when asked about it, advised the family that they couldn’t possibly have made the mistakes, as that portion of the death certificate, on their computerized form, is inaccessible to them; only the coroner can fill it out.

‘Flip’

These, and many other disparities, only lend to the bizarre nature of the entire case.

Added to all this is the fact that Richard “Flip” Minton, who works at the Franklin County sheriff’s department, is one of the only people in downstate Illinois trained at the National Computer Forensics Institute to go through computer hard-drives of people arrested by the state police, feds or other national law enforcement agency such as the secret service…and this is where things start to get weird.

Minton is apparently somewhat feared in downstate, as he’s the one who goes through computers, forensically, and finds what’s in them.

The unspoken sentiment here is twofold: One, it’s that if he knows how to forensically dissect what’s on a hard drive in a computer brought to him, there’s the possibility that he could remotely access—and place upon a computer—something incriminating; and two, if he’s forensically been through certain computers in downstate, who’s to say he hasn’t found incriminating material about certain high-ranking public officials, from the city, county, state and even federal level in southern Illinois.

Whatever, the case, former prosecutor Mike Wepseic in Jackson County seemed averse to touching the Minton case with an eleven-foot pole.

And since no serious or significant investigation has been conducted by either the city of Carbondale or the state, many are now wondering what it will take to get Richie Minton questioned at all, as he’s being watched over not only by an attorney, but by his “influential” parents at all turns.

The ball is now in the court of Mike Carr, who’s made no public statement about the Young death case, but could yet take the step of conducting a grand jury, wherein all the people who were around Minton and Young in her last days can be brought before 16 residents of the county and be questioned without a judge present.

Whether Carr, who’s known to the Disclosure readership area as part of the government’s prosecutorial team who put away former Gallatin County sheriff Raymond Martin two and a half years ago, will do such a thing remains to be seen.

Or, for those on lower bandwidth, click below to try our AUDIO ONLY podcast:

Here’s the flyer:

Feel free to download if you can, and distribute as you can; scroll down (continued below)

You can get a full-size document by going to the Facebook page Justice for Molly.

We have taped a vidcast that outlines what Ang and Chris observed during the coroner’s inquest in Jackson County Thursday, January 31, 2013. This will hopefully air this weekend and will also be featured in the upcoming print edition on stands beginning a week from Tuesday, February 12 (which is why we haven’t covered it in full here on the website.) You’ll be surprised and probably shocked at what was left out of mainstream media coverage of this event. If you don’t have a vendor in your area, you can get your Disclosure right here online by clicking this link and enrolling your online membership to read the e-Edition.

Molly Young

JACKSON CO.—A CORONER’S JURY OF 6 HAS RENDERED A VERDICT IN THE DEATH OF MOLLLY YOUNG: UNDETERMINED IN NATURE.

Young died March 24, 2012, of a gunshot wound to the head while at the apartment of her on-again, off again boyfriend, Richie Minton, in Carbondale. Minton was a Carbondale Police dispatcher at the time.

Minton was not present during the coroner’s jury proceeding and deliberations today in Murphysboro at the Jackson County courthouse.

THE VERDICT OF “UNDETERMINED” WAS REACHED ON THE BASIS THAT NOT ENOUGH EVIDENCE WAS PRESENTED TO MAKE A DETERMINATION…A VERY IMPORTANT POINT.

We’ll have more in a bit…keep checking back.

The Black Oak authors have been holding combined book signings for the holiday season, and their books, signed and personalized, make great gifts and stocking stuffers. The Black Oak Media authors are:

Angela Mason, author of Death Rides the Sky: The Story of the 1925 Tri-State Tornado. This book remains the most comprehensive account of the four books written on the subject of the most devastating tornadic storm ever to occur on U.S. soil. While weather, disaster and history aficionados are familiar with the Tri-State Tornado, many are still unaware of this terrible storm, even though it went right through their own backyard, right here in southern Illinois on March 18, 1925. This book tells the stories from the people who experienced it–survivors from every town stricken by the storm from southeastern Missouri to southwestern Indiana–and has input from weather experts past and present as well as a shocking ending involving an allegorical tale discovered by the writer as the research into the book was wrapping up.

Bruce Cline, author of History, Mystery and Hauntings of Southern Illinois I and II. Cline’s books are individual accounts of historical places in southern Illinois that have legends surrounding them based on the paranormal…and he has the personal experiences to back up what he has published. A founder of the Little Egypt Ghost Society based in Carbondale, Cline’s meticulously-researched books provide entertaining, enlightening and often chilling anecdotes of places and legends based in southern Illinois (the “618 area code,” as he specifically calls it) and are accompanied by photo presentations of places and things both well-known as well as little known.

Kale Meggs, author of 99 Nooses. Between 1779 and 1896, ninety-eight men and one woman were legally executed by hanging in the State of Illinois. Some were innocent, but most were guilty. Their crimes shocked the small farming communities and developing towns of 19th century Illinois. 99 Nooses weaves a tapestry of colorful prose based on hundreds of painstakingly researched historical documents. Many of these stories have not seen the light of day for over two generations. Read about the crimes that shocked yesteryear, including: Wapikinamouk, a vengeful Delaware Indian who was hanged for murdering a frontiersman. Nathaniel Van Noy, who scientists attempted to revive after execution using grisly techniques. John Ott, who was hanged for killing women and children in what became known as the Tazewell County Massacre. The story of the Haymarket anarchists. And many more.

Below are the Black Oak authors from Saturday’s event at the West Frankfort Public Library; from left, Kale Meggs, Bruce Cline and Angela Mason (with Jade at the far right, as she assists her mom, Ang, with sales to customers)

Come on out and join the Black Oak authors; and if you can’t make it to this one, come to the Genkota Winery in Mt. Vernon, Ill., next week (Dec. 12) from 5 to 7, where they’ll be with the Southern Illinois Writer’s Guild’s holiday event there.

However, because of a plea deal, set forth no doubt because Jackson County prosecutor Mike Wepseic is more or less a lame duck (he announced earlier this year that he would be retiring and not seeking another term), she’s only going to be experiencing a little punishment for her Class 2 felony conviction of Harassment of Witnesses, as opposed to four Class X counts of Solicitation to Commit Murder for Hire, which were dropped in exchange for the plea.

Not that there was much doubt that what Tina did was exactly what the charges that were originally filed against her in 2010 claimed. Anyone who sat through the entire Raymond Martin federal case in September 2010 would know that. But Wepsiec, of course, did not.

Tina Martin

Yesterday, Sept. 26, Tina entered a plea to the reduced count of Harassment, wherein it’s claimed that she took part in “harassing” the two key witnesses in Raymond Martin’s federal case—Jeremy Potts and David Woods, both of Gallatin County–whom her husband at the time was attempting to have killed. Martin tried to secure the services of two rather innocuous detainees at the Murphysboro jail (Jackson County, where the action took place, and which is why the charges are there instead of in Gallatin), where he was being held pending the federal case, and offered to pay them to kill both Potts and Woods so that their direct testimony wouldn’t be presented at his trial. He was charged with using a weapon in the commission of a drug crime as well as numerous pot delivery charges initially; but when the news broke that he had spent literally months trying to effect these “hits” from behind bars, he was also charged—along with his then-wife Tina and his son, Cody—with Solicitation to Commit Murder for Hire, four counts (two separate counts per person).

Tina and Cody were able to bond out of the Jackson County jail on their charges; Raymondo couldn’t, and he remained until his federal case.

There, everyone who stayed for the two-week ordeal heard Tina talking to Raymond about actually getting Potts and Woods killed; how Tina was searching for photos of the victims so that the purported hit men could make sure they were getting the right person; and how they giggled over a man who committed suicide in front of the motel in Shawneetown who “might’ve” been one of their intended victims, they were just waiting on a name to come across the news stations.

In other words, Tina was right there in the mix of it. But because the feds got their man, and never charged Tina with a federal crime in connection with him, she just didn’t quite pique their interest. And because of that, her case languished in state court in Jackson County, with endless continuances prompted by one side or another (primarily due to her attorney, Paul Christenson, having a stroke and being unable to continue in the case.)

But, armed with a new attorney (Mark Costa), she was able to wrangle a plea agreement as long ago as two months. She was mouthy about it, telling anyone who’d listen that she was only going to have to spend a few months in the local jail, and would be out in time for Christmas.

Locals, knowing that Raymond was sitting in a federal pen for ostensibly the rest of his life (ostensibly because just a few weeks ago, the federal appeals court overturned his sentence, stating that the federal judge couldn’t sentence him to life for the weapons in commission of a drug crime count), were understandably outraged over what they were hearing from Tina’s family and friends. However, they held out hope that maybe it was more “big talk” from the woman who apparently believed for so long that she was untouchable, even after her ex-husband was imprisoned for his crimes.

That hope was dashed when it was made official yesterday: 180 days in local lockup, a $25,000 fine (conveniently, the amount of her bail), 250 hours of community service, and four years probation upon completion of her sentence, during which time she must be good and not commit any infractions of the law.

According to those in Gallatin who’ve kept an eye on her, Tina has, however, for the past two years continued to violate the terms of her bail bond, including not reporting where she was residing (she’s had a series of sugar daddies, if locals are to be believed) and a host of other occurrences that would’ve had anyone else tossed back into the pokey. Therefore, not many are hopeful that anyone’s going to keep an eye on her during the probationary period of four years to see to it that she’s going to “be good.” In fact, if the locals are to be believed, Tina, who apparently knows a LOT more than what she’s openly telling, could probably get away with murder and would likely escape unscathed…after all, Solicitation to Commit Murder isn’t so far removed.

This is evidenced by Wepsiec’s somewhat happydappysappy report to the Southern Illinoisan this morning:

“The person who did the soliciting was the former sheriff (Raymond Martin),” Wepsiec said. “She was kind of a conduit of the offer, certainly not as culpable as her former husband. Additionally, after approximately two years of continuances, there were, I won’t say major evidentiary problems, but there would have been some obstacles we would have had to overcome.”

Geez. All he’d have had to do was listen to all the phone calls played during the federal trial…and all that horrible Bonnie Tyler ringtone (“Total Eclipse of the Heart”)…and there probably wouldn’t have been any evidentiary concerns. Way to go, Mike. You’ve certainly left a legacy.

Tina was jailed as soon as the hearing was over yesterday, and will remain there for roughly less than half of the sentence, as she’s getting credit for 26 days time served early on in the matter (January 2010) and of course gets day-for-day “good time” credit (this is assuming she’s going to BE good while she’s in lockup). In other words, she’ll be out in time for Christmas with the fam.

Kind of an anti-climactic ending to the drama that gripped southern Illinois starting May 18, 2009, and continued to the bitter end (sort of, as it’s not really over…yet).

More as we get it…keep checking back.

BRITTNIE WAS LOCATED TUESDAY NIGHT, SEPT. 4. SHE IS FINE. WHILE SHE CAN’T GIVE DETAILS SURROUNDING THE CASE RIGHT NOW, HER MOTHER WISHES TO EXPRESS HER THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP THE COMMUNITIES SHOWED. BELOW IS THE ORIGINAL POST.

CARBONDALE—A woman who has been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and has been in what’s alleged to have been an abusive relationship has been missing from her home in Carbondale since Friday.

Brittnie Sue Harris, standing, back when she was pregnant.

Brittnie Sue Harris, as shown above, hasn’t been seen or heard from since Friday, August 31. At that time, she was intent on telling her husband that she wanted a divorce. Her husband, according to Brittnie’s mother, Katrina Craig, is alleged to have been abusive in the past, thus the reason for the divorce request. He has been questioned by Carbondale police, but, Craig says, his “story keeps changing.”

Craig began to worry about her daughter when she neglected to call to check in on her son, whom Craig and her husband have legal guardianship of; Craig says Brittnie calls every day on that basis. Craig filed a missing persons report yesterday. The Carbondale police officer to contact is an Officer Lohnes and the number to call with information is 618-457-3200. Craig has also put her number out there in an effort to find her daughter, 618-751-3618.

Shortly after 8 p.m. Saturday evening, the first drowning victim was brought in to the hospital but considered dead upon arrival.

The second followed within minutes after.

The location of the accidental drowning is being reported by authorities as a swimming pool behind a residence on Dogwood Road off Giant City Road in Carbondale. There’s no word on HOW this could have taken place.

On Sunday, the coroner’s office announced that the two boys were Alick Jentrey Poindexter Monson, 12, and Lewis Jecquary Monson, 14, brothers from Hopkinsville, Ky. What they were doing in Carbondale has not been mentioned at this time.

Further information will follow as we receive it.