Joliet Outlaw Probate Concealed Katie Kearns' Death: Testimony

JOLIET, IL — Colby O'Neal, a 32-year-old Seneca resident, testified Monday morning that he was inside the Joliet Outlaws clubhouse with Katie Kearns and Jeremy Boshears during the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2017 — the date of the 24-year-old bartender's death.

O'Neal was a probate in the Joliet Outlaws, while Boshears got his patch about a year earlier, making Boshears a full-fledged member of the Outlaws, O'Neal told the jury.

To become a full member, probates were expected to help with security, bartending and various favors that were asked of them by patched members of the club.

Assistant Will County State's Attorney Dan Egan asked whether Boshears' demeanor changed once Boshears got his Joliet Outlaws patch?

"Much more aggressive toward things; he wanted to prove himself," O'Neal told the jurors hearing evidence in the first-degree murder trial for Boshears, who is now 36. Boshears is accused of fatally shooting Kearns inside the Joliet Outlaws clubhouse and then moving her body.

Nov. 12, 2017 was a Sunday night. According to testimony, O'Neal and Boshears drove separate trucks to Woody's Bar on Joliet's east side, where Kearns was tending bar.

O'Neal had never met the 24-year-old woman from Mokena prior to that night.

"I had only heard of her," O'Neal testified.

At Woody's, he and Boshears sat at the bar "and talked about some things." They stayed until the bar closed. Boshears became very upset upon learning the bar was being closed that night at midnight, at the direction of the bar's manager, Shari Depratt.

Afterward, O'Neal and Boshears drove back to the Joliet Outlaws clubhouse, about three to five minutes away, the witness testified.

"It was just me and him there," O'Neal told the Will County jury. "Forty-five minutes later, Katie got there. She was let in."

O'Neal recalled Kearns sat behind the bar inside the Joliet Outlaws clubhouse. "We had one shot (of hard liquor) that I do remember," O'Neal told jurors.

Around 2 a.m., Boshears got mad at O'Neal and "headbutted me. He was a fully patched member. I wasn't supposed to (hit him) ... I said, 'Hey, I'm sorry,'" O'Neal told jurors.

Moments later, O'Neal decided to leave and drive home toward Seneca.

"I said it was nice to meet you (and) shook her hand," O'Neal said, referring to Kearns.

"When you left, was Miss Kearns alive?" Egan asked his witness.

"Yes," O'Neal answered.

"Did Jeremy have a gun that night in the clubhouse?"

"Yes."

Boshears had the gun on him that Sunday night, and when they went to the Outlaws clubhouse, "he placed it behind the bar," O'Neal testified.

By 2:25 a.m. O'Neal was driving his truck west along Interstate 80 heading toward Morris when he got a phone call.

"Who was it on the other end?" Egan asked.

"Jeremy," O'Neal testified.

Boshears told the Joliet Outlaw probate that he "needed you to come back. Something happened. I turned around to go back that way."

O'Neal was told to drive to a Joliet house on Algonquin Street that belonged to another Joliet Outlaws member. From there, "We went back to the clubhouse. Me and Jeremy."

When O'Neal peered inside the clubhouse, "I saw something covered on the floor close to the front door when you walk in," O'Neal testified.

O'Neal walked toward the back door.

"I was instructed to open it by Jeremy," O'Neal testified.

Then, another "full-patched member" of the Outlaws showed up.

"He went and entered the clubhouse," O'Neal testified. "I stood by the back door on the deck."

Boshears and the newly arrived Outlaws member "talked for a few minutes. Jeremy went and grabbed a pool table cover. They started rolling something up," O'Neal testified.

O'Neal acknowledged that he signed an agreement giving him immunity in exchange for his testimony in the first-degree murder trial against Boshears. In other words, O'Neal cannot be charged with any criminal offenses in connection with his conduct related to the death.

During cross-examination from defense attorney Chuck Bretz, O'Neal acknowledged that he did help conceal the death of Katie Kearns in a number of ways.

The jury saw video surveillance tapes from Sun Mart Foods convenient store near the Joliet Outlaws clubhouse. The video showed O'Neal purchasing a plastic bottle of bleach.

Another exhibit showed O'Neal and Boshears inside the Walmart store on Route 30 in New Lenox. That time, Boshears purchased a new smoke detector for inside the Joliet Outlaws clubhouse to cover up the bullet hole in the wall after Kearns had died, according to O'Neal's testimony.

O'Neal testified he never saw Kearns' dead body. All he saw was an object rolled up in the tarp. "They put it in the back of Katie's vehicle," O'Neal testified. "Jeremy shut the door and said he was going to Kankakee."

Nobody else got into the vehicle belonging to Kearns, the jury heard.

O'Neal said he and the other Joliet Outlaws member "remained in the clubhouse."

"I got into Jeremy's truck and drove to Coal City to pick up his wife," O'Neal testified. "She needed the truck to get to work."

O'Neal then gave Boshears a ride to the funeral service for Boshears' uncle.

The reason why he and Boshears went to the Walmart in New Lenox to buy the smoke detector was because the Sun Mart Foods store did not sell smoke detectors, he testified.

"Mr. O'Neal, did you guys buy anything else besides the smoke detector?" Egan inquired.

"That was it," the prosecution's witness answered. "We went back to the clubhouse and put it up."

Before passing on his witness, Egan asked O'Neal to describe for the jury what it meant to be a "1 Percenter" in the Joliet Outlaws.

"You're the 1 percent that doesn't follow man's law," he testified.

During cross-examination from Bretz, O'Neal acknowledged he gave four separate interview statements to the Will County Sheriff's detectives, the last three in the presence of a lawyer who O'Neal retained as counsel.

Bretz told the jury that during an interview with police in November 2017, O'Neal remarked, "I'm just scared this is going to get turned on me." Then, last December, O'Neal told police, "I was thinking I could go to prison for this idiot, meaning Mr. Boshears?" Bretz asked the witness. "For anything he did?"

"Yes," O'Neal agreed.

"You know you helped cover up a death?" Bretz asked.

"Unfortunately, yes," O'Neal testified.

Bretz told the jury the Joliet Outlaws are an organization "that you follow the rules." For punishment, sometimes you received a black eye, O'Neal testified.

"They punish because they wanted loyalty," Bretz declared. "You never called the police. They came to you, right?"

"Yes," O'Neal agreed.

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