2 Experts May Prove Katie Kearns Shot Herself: Bretz Says

JOLIET, IL — In November 2017, the Will County Sheriff's issued a press release proclaiming it had solved the mysterious disappearance of eastside Joliet bartender Katie Kearns. Jeremy Boshears, a member of the Joliet Outlaws who had been seeing her of late, was charged with her premeditated murder. However, in the coming months, the Will County Sheriff's Department investigation may start to fall apart as an alternative scenario emerges, according to Boshears' defense attorney.

"It is our belief that the decedent regrettably took her own life," Joliet criminal defense attorney Chuck Bretz told Joliet Patch during an interview Friday at his law firm, Chuck Bretz & Associates.

On Friday, Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak approved Bretz's petition for the use of Will County taxpayers funds to hire Glen Ellyn-based Larsen Forensics & Associates. Bretz convinced the judge that his client, who remains in jail on a $10 million bail, does not have sufficient funds to hire a team of specialized forensic experts to re-examine the case brought against him.

The defense motion states that "Larsen Forensics also has on staff a forensic pathologist who would review the evidence to opine if the gunshot would appear to be self-inflicted or not. There is a tentative estimate that this case would require 40 hours to review and draft an opinion, with hourly rates going from $75 to $300."

The upcoming testing by Larsen Forensics & Associates will either validate the Will County Sheriff's Department initial theory that Kearns met her death inside the Joliet Outlaws clubhouse during a premeditated, cold and calculated crime, or the Glen Ellyn firm will conclude that the sheriff's office jumped to the wrong conclusion.

If that turns out to be the case, it would not be the first time the Will County Sheriff's Office has messed up on a major case.

Among the notables, the Will County Sheriff's Office has been accused of botching the Sema'j Crosby case during the initial, critical days of the case. The sheriff's office was also responsible for bungling the Wilmington case involving 3-year-old Riley Fox, jumping to the wrong conclusion that her father Kevin Fox was responsible for her death and hiding her body.

Bretz told Joliet Patch on Friday that Larsen Forensics & Associates, which is run by John Louis Larsen, is a company he has never used before.

"They're independent and they happen to be the best available persons to analyze this situation," Bretz said.

John Louis Larsen and colleague Arthur Brochers would reconstruct the crime scene and develop opinions such as the angle and trajectory of the bullet, the approximate location of Katie Kearns at the time of her death and the location or manner in which the shooting occurred at the Joliet Outlaws property, "based on the height, weight and other dimensions of the victim and the defendant," court papers outline.

Patch has previously reported that the fatal bullet was recovered from the ceiling rafters of the Joliet Outlaws clubhouse on East Washington Street. Katie Kearns' body was found in the back of the Jeep she had been driving in the days before her death, about 60 miles away from Joliet, at a remote property in neighboring Kankakee County.

Bretz said it's his belief that the sheriff's department made up its mind during the early stages of the case that Boshears committed first-degree murder. "The State has not tendered any re-enactment evidence to us," Bretz explained Friday.

Bretz said that people need to look at the young woman's death and the fact that her body was moved 60 miles away as two separate events.

The fact that her body was moved to a different location does not mean she was murdered, Bretz emphasized.

"The fact that somebody moved a body is irrelevant," Bretz said.

The idea of a cold-blood premeditated murder taking place inside the Joliet Outlaws building, "doesn't make any sense at all," Bretz told Patch."Our response is, that's not really a logical scenario."

For starters, the Outlaws already know they have a giant target on their back, Bretz noted.

He equated Kearns' death inside the clubhouse property as being the type event that would set off a panic for the club, no different than if a similar situation occurred at a college fraternity or sorority house.

Bretz said he didn't want to guess on how long Larsen Forensics will need to conduct their independent analysis including the Joliet Outlaws clubhouse. If the evidence is favorable to his client, Bretz said, the Will County State's Attorney's Office would have to decide whether to forge ahead with a first-degree murder trial against Boshears or whether to dismiss the murder charges.

Bretz said it's possible prosecutors could still move ahead with the murder trial and let the jury decide the differing sets of opinions as to what happened to Katie Kearns during the early morning hours of Monday, Nov. 13, 2017.

The toxicology results for Katie Kearns showed a Blood Alcohol Concentration of 0.212. The results also showed positive results for Xanax, oxcarbazepine, Citalopram, cocaine and cocaine metabolites. Kearns, who lived in rural Mokena, had worked part-time at the Woody's Bar on East Washington Street, a bar that caters to bikers.

Authorities suggested that Kearns and Boshears were romantically involved in the weeks prior to her death. Boshears grew up in the Ingalls Park area of Joliet's east side. At the time of his arrest, he and his family lived in Coal City.

He had no criminal record, aside from run-of-the-mill traffic offenses, at the time of his arrest on first-degree murder charges. Boshears was also charged with concealment of a homicidal death.

"He is hopeful that this analysis by the experts will bring the truth to light," Bretz said. "From Day One, we have maintained our client's innocence as to the murder charges."