Murder Defendant's Wife Told Joliet Police Where To Find Him: Trial

JOLIET, IL — Joliet first-degree murder defendant Jermaine Mandley watched his estranged wife Chelsea take the witness stand Wednesday afternoon as she revealed to the jury how she helped tip off the Joliet police to her husband's scheme to get away.

Chelsea Mandley, 28, testified has been married to Mandley for three years, and he is the father of her youngest of two children, ages 4 and 1. She also testified she had left him last December.

After the Jan. 8 murder of Channahon resident, Maya Smith, 24, in a Joliet west side alley, Mandley contacted his wife through the Snapchat app, she testified.

On Snapchat, Mandley contacted his wife using the name of Larry Love 2023, according to Wednesday's trial testimony in Courtroom 405 of Will County Judge Dave Carlson.

Prosecutor Tricia McKenna asked her witness what was the purpose of Jermaine Mandley/Larry Love's Snapchat call to her?

"Help him flee," Chelsea Mandley testified.

McKenna asked the witness if she told Mandley she would meet him at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana, as part of his scheme to get away from the Joliet police, who were pursuing him as their prime suspect in Maya Smith's murder.

However, Chelsea Mandley had no plans whatsoever to help her husband flee, she told the jury. She wasn't in the area, as she led her husband to believe. She was really in Columbus, Ohio, at the time he called her on the Snapchat app, she testified.

She informed the Joliet police as to his whereabouts and also recorded her Snapchat phone call with Mandley. McKenna played the phone call for the courtroom during Wednesday's trial.

"How long's it take you get there?" Mandley asked his wife, the jury heard.

She tells him it would take her about 70 minutes.

"Just drive the Cadillac," Mandley told her.

Mandley told her the reason he called her through Snapchat is because he did not want the authorities being able to ping his cell phone.

"I just don't want nobody to ping my phone," he emphasized.

Mandley then goes on to tell his wife, "see the type of s**t you put me through."

Before ending the call, Mandley told her, "to call me when you get in the car."

"I was actually in Columbus, Ohio, and just made up" a story, Chelsea Mandley told the jury.

"Did you ever intend in trying to help him get away?" McKenna inquired.

"Absolutely, not," she replied.

Mandley's two Will County Public Defenders, Zack Strupeck and Phil Villasenor, informed Judge Carlson they did not have any questions to ask during cross-examination.

"No questions, your honor," Strupeck remarked.

Joliet Police Sgt. Kyle Bledsoe testified he and Joliet Police Lt. Jeremy Harrison conducted surveillance on Mandley in the days leading to his arrest. Both were in the area of the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond in an unmarked Joliet police car when the FBI made what's known as a high risk traffic stop of the vehicle in which Mandley was riding as a passenger.

"At an intersection near Horseshoe Casino. You could see the Horseshoe Casino," Bledsoe testified.

At the time of the arrest, Mandley surrendered his cell phone to Bledsoe, the jury learned.