Defendant in Kelli O'Laughlin Murder Case Changes Mind Again

The man charged with the 2011 murder of 14-year-old Indian Head Park resident Kelli O'Laughlin wants to switch attorneys again, according to The Doings Western Springs.

Attorney Michelle Gonzalez said in Cook County court Friday that she wants to represent John L. Wilson, who is charged with first-degree murder, along with attorney John Paul Carroll after the defendant sent the pair a letter asking for representation, The Doings reports. 

Carroll and Gonzalez had represented Wilson before he decided he wanted to represent himself in 2012. In August, Wilson agreed to be represented by a public defender, but has now changed his mind again.
Judge John J. Hynes is allowing the change back to Carroll and Gonzalez, The Doings reports, and expects the pair to get up to date on the case's developments quickly. The next hearing is Nov 12.
Kelli O'Laughlin's mom, Brenda, posted about Friday's hearing on the R.I.P. Kelli O'Laughlin Facebook page.

"I had a gut feeling that this is what was going to happen, but deep down I was hoping for once I was wrong," the post reads. "If you followed the case and watched the moves of the now attorney and defendant you knew this was going to happen."
According to Indian Head Park Police, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and Illinois State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, Wilson on Oct. 27, 2011 broke into the rear of O'Laughlin's home on the 6300 block of Keokuk Avenue by putting by putting a rock in a knit cap and hurling it through the dining room window.
After he was found by Kelli O’Laughlin, Wilson allegedly used a butcher knife from a cutlery block in the family’s kitchen to stab her repeatedly in the back, neck and chest. He then dragged her body from the family room into the kitchen.
Both the knife and the knit cap were found at the scene of the crime; a DNA profile from the cap matches Wilson’s own.

Read the full Doings story here.