Joliet's Accused Baby Killer From Bel-Air Motel Wants No Lawyers

JOLIET, IL — Next week will mark six entire years that 30-year-old first-degree murder defendant Shanquilla Garvey has remained locked away at the Will County Jail, accused of throwing her 9-month-old daughter Cherish Freeman into a set of dresser drawers at the Bel-Air Motel on Joliet's Plainfield Road where Garvey lived.

Over the past six years, Garvey has been represented by the Will County Public Defender's Office, notably lawyer George Lenard and Kristen Wyss. However, in recent days, Lenard filed a motion with Judge Rippy indicating that their days of helping Garvey with her lawyer have come to an end. After six years in the Will County Jail, awaiting her trial, Garvey has come to the conclusion that she is better off serving as her own lawyer.

"The defendant is charged with first degree murder," Lenard's motion to withdraw states. "The defendant is requesting the court to allow her to represent herself ... the defendant, Shanquilla Garvey, respectfully moves this honorable court to allow the Will County Public Defender to withdraw as counsel in the above cause and allow the defendant to proceed pro se.

Garvey's murder case has been scheduled for a jury trial numerous times over the past two years, but on every occasion, the trial was delayed. At the moment, Garvey's latest jury trial is set for March 25, 2024, in Courtroom 402 of Will County Judge Dan Rippy.

Will County's criminal complaint states that Garvey threw Cherish "into a dresser and onto the ground and then shook" Cherish "thereby causing the death" of the little girl.

Garvey's next pretrial hearing is set for Jan. 10. At that hearing, Judge Rippy may decide whether to let Garvey part ways with Lenard and Wyss and serve as her own lawyer with less than three months to go before her Joliet murder trial begins.

As for Lenard, nowadays, he remains busy serving as the lead counsel for the Will County Public Defender's Office in the first-degree murder and hate crime case against 72-year-old Plainfield landlord Joseph Czuba in connection with October's deadly stabbing of little Wadee Alfayoumi and the stabbing of Wadee's mother, Hanan Shaheen.