Prosecution Expert Can't Say If Boshears Or Kearns Fired Gun

JOLIET, IL — Matthew Noedel, a forensic expert who testified in the 2012 trial of convicted mass-murderer Christopher Vaughn, was called to the witness stand Thursday morning as the Will County prosecution's final witness in the murder trial of Joliet Outlaw Jeremy Boshears.

In Vaughn's trial, Noedel told jurors that powder burns on the faces of Christopher Vaughn's children show they were shot from only a foot away.

But in the death of the 24-year-old Joliet bartender, Noedel testified, he cannot reach any definitive conclusion on whether Boshears fired the pistol that took Katie Kearns' life or Kearns held a gun to her own head and pulled the trigger.

His conclusion, the jury heard, was a finding of inconclusive.

Noedel said he studied several factors in the shooting, including the angle of the bullet's trajectory. The bullet fired through Kearns' skull, from right to left, and ended up in the attic of the Joliet Outlaws clubhouse, he testified.

Noedel testified the biggest obstacle in this case is that the death scene was cleaned up.
Noedel said he would have expected to review blood stains, blood spatter and brain matter inside the Joliet Outlaws clubhouse, but by the time Will County Sheriff's detectives raided the property, many days later, the Outlaws had cleaned up the entire scene, the jury was reminded.

The exact location in the Outlaws' clubhouse where Kearns died "is unknown because she was not found at that scene," Noedel testified.

On Wednesday, Boshears testified in his own defense, telling jurors that two other Outlaws, Colby O'Neal and Cory Espeland, were responsible for wrapping up Kearns' body with a futon mattress and a pool table cover. Boshears testified he drove her body and her Jeep to the farm in St. Anne owned by a high-ranking Joliet Outlaw, Ron Keagle.

The Jeep was pushed inside Keagle's pole barn by Boshears, Ron Keagle and his wife.

Noedel testified "the tilt of Katie's head" made it possible she was sitting on the small band stage inside the Joliet Outlaws. She also may have been sitting at a bar stool, he told the jury.

"She does not have to be standing at the time the shot was delivered," Noedel testified.

Theoretically, Boshears "could be standing slightly behind her," the prosecutions' witness testified.

If the scene was not altered, Noedel testified, you would expect to find the gun in proximity to the body. Not only was Kearns' body removed from the clubhouse and the scene underwent a rigorous multi-day cleaning, but the gun was also never found.

"You would want to look at body position of Katie Kearns, blood spatter, pools, blood stains and how she may have fallen," Noedel testified.

On Wednesday, Boshears testified that fellow Joliet Outlaw Colby O'Neal left his gun behind the bar when O'Neal left the club to drive home shortly before 2 a.m.

Boshears testified that Kearns was already extremely upset at him when she found the gun behind the bar after she went to grab her keys. Standing near the stage area, Kearns put the gun up against her head, as he screamed and pleaded with her not to shoot herself, Boshears testified.

Based on the cone he created for where the shooting happened, Noedel testified Kearns may have discharged the gun herself or "another person can fit in that cone."

During cross-examination from defense attorney Chuck Bretz, Noedel brought up the fact that the Will County Sheriff's Office "did not do a bullet pathway angle re-construction" in the case.

"You could not eliminate self-inflicted versus other inflicted in this case?" Bretz asked the prosecution's expert witness.

"That's correct," Noedel agreed.

At 2 p.m., both sides finishing calling witnesses. Will County Judge Dave Carlson ordered the jury to return at 8:30 a.m. for final arguments. Jury deliberations will then begin.