5 Sentimental Photos Sent To Joliet Murder Defendant Lost: Suit

JOLIET, IL — Christopher Beale, a Joliet first-degree murder defendant now in his 40th month of incarceration at the Will County Jail, is suing jail administrators and a mail clerk, accusing them of losing five family photographs that have sentimental value to him.

Beale has remained in custody since Joliet police detectives arrested him Oct. 1, 2018, the date of the homicide of Marcedes Flakes, the mother of his children.

Flakes was stabbed in the back with a knife. The slaying happened at the Fairview public housing projects, which has since been torn down.

Last July, Joliet Patch reported that Beale got rid of the Will County Public Defenders Office for his first-degree murder case. Beale has been serving as his own criminal defense counsel.

Additionally, Beale has filed a pro se lawsuit against Will County Sheriff's Chief Deputy David Adams and two other sheriff's employees affiliated with the jail.

According to Beale's lawsuit, his mother and his sister mailed him five Christmas cards with five family photographs in each of their cards on Dec. 21, 2020.

Beale stated he received some of their Christmas cards on Jan. 10-11,2021.

"Out of the five, I only received four. Two of the five were logged into the WCADF computer system," his lawsuit stated.

According to Beale's lawsuit, the photographs "have great sentimental value to me and my family. I have exhausted every WCADF internal remedy available to me as a person confined in the WCADF ... On Jan. 21, 2021, Mau replied with a response that is not sufficient because I did not get my WCADF lost photographs."

Beale's lawsuit indicates he has filed multiple grievances at the jail in 2021.

"Trying to get my lost photographs back ... For a WCADF official to deliberately hide his or her identity shows a bad faith propensity to swindle me ... On May 18, 2021, Deputy Chief Adams replied with a response that confirms that the WCADF mail clerk Mau #1762 lost five of my photographs of great sentimental value," Beale wrote.

"I believe this to be a meritorious small claims lawsuit," Beale wrote. "All facts or failures to act were done in the scope of any employment with Will County."

Beale's pro se lawsuit seeks "a one time full payment of $10,000 from all named defendants."

Back on Oct. 2, 2018, supporters of Joliet homicide victim Marcedes Flakes told Joliet Patch that the fatal stabbing at the Fairview public housing complex was witnessed by the couple's oldest child as several of the victim's children were home getting ready for school.

They said that Flakes had lived at the Fairview public housing unit for about a year. Beale was not staying there and that he had pulled up his car and went inside the apartment that Monday morning, yelling at her and then using a knife to stab her as she tried to get away from him, according to friends of the homicide victim.

The knife wound punctured one of the arteries in her heart, the prosecutor said in court.

"He took her life. She was trying to get away from him," one of the relatives said outside the courtroom. "Marci was a good person. He took her away from her babies."

Beale's bail remains set at $2 million.

Prior to his arrest, Beale lived in the 1300 block of Joliet's Arthur Avenue.

Related Joliet Patch coverage:

Joliet Murder Defendant Christopher Beale Doesn't Need Lawyer

Knife Pierced Heart Of Joliet Mother At Fairview