Woman's Body Put In Shopping Cart, Left At Gustos Bar: Prosecution

CREST HILL, IL — A shopping cart and blanket were used to move and conceal the body of Jeanie Bresley, the 44-year-old manager at the Circle K gas station on Plainfield Road, from the Crest Hill Inn room of criminal defendant Kelvanti "Marcel" Lawrence, according to court documents filed by the Will County State's Attorney Office of Jim Glasgow.

The documents were filed in what's known as a petition to deny pre-trial release.

The Lawrence case marks one of Will County's first noteworthy judicial rulings since Illinois ended cash bail. Last week, Will County Judge Marzell Richardson ruled in favor of prosecutors and ordered Lawrence, 30, held at Will County jail in connection with the death of his boss at the Circle K across from the Louis Joliet Mall.

Lawrence has not been charged with killing Bresley. Rather, he has been charged with concealment of a death, two counts of unlawful use of weapons by a felon and one count of unlawful possession of marijuana with intent to deliver.

The petition to deny bail for Lawrence outlines the following events surrounding the death of Bresley and the moving of her body to Gustos Bar and Grill along Plainfield Road:

On Sunday, Sept. 17, at 8:37 a.m., Lawrence used Bresley's cell phone to call police for a welfare check at Gustos Bar.

According to the documents, Lawrence told the Crest Hill police someone may be sleeping in a vehicle and that Lawrence had knocked on the car window and there was no response.

The vehicle, a purple Chrysler 300, was backed into the parking lot of Gustos; the doors were closed but unlocked, and the hazard lights were on.

Bresley was in a laying position, wedged between the door and the seat on the passenger side floorboard, the filing said.

According to the filing, police spoke with the victim's daughter, who informed them that Bresley does consume cocaine and other drugs on occasion and that Bresley had a male friend, Lawrence, who worked with her at the Circle K on Plainfield Road and that their relationship was sexual.

Lawrence and Bresley were staying at the Crest Hill Inn next to Gustos Bar and video surveillance from the hotel showed Lawrence and another man, who has not been charged, moving Bresley's body, the documents state. Then, Lawrence drove Bresley's vehicle to Gustos, and left her and her vehicle there.

The petition states that Lawrence, a former Texas resident, had used a blanket to cover Bresley as he pushed her body in the grocery cart before putting her into the car; he later returned to the Crest Hill Inn and threw away the blanket.

Police did not recover the blanket because a trash hauler had already collected the garbage from the Crest Hill Inn.

Lawrence was arrested by Crest Hill police and a Smith & Wesson .40 caliber gun, loaded with one bullet in the chamber and several rounds in the magazine, was found in a backpack on the bed of Lawrence inside Room 109.

Marijuana that weighed 150.5 grams was recovered from the backpack, too.

Lawrence agreed to a recorded interview with Crest Hill police. He told them he goes by the name of Marcel, and he's from Killeen, Texas. He has been in the Joliet area for about 18 months, and he came here with his wife, and they are now separated.

The petition states that Lawrence had been staying at the Crest Hill Inn for about two months. He worked at the Circle K since March. Lawrence did not own a car, and he relied on his manager, Bresley, for rides to work. Lawrence described himself as Bresley's best friend, they hung out together and had a sexual relationship, according to the filing.

Initially, the filing notes, Lawrence told police that Bresley stayed at Gustos Bar, and he did not hear from her again. The officers confronted Lawrence with video surveillance footage from the Crest Hill Inn showing him and another man loading Bresley, covered up, into her vehicle around 7:50 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 17, and her foot was hanging out from under the blanket on the shopping cart.

The filing says Lawrence confirmed he and the other man were in the video, and that was Bresley's car. However, he told police Bresley was alive under the blanket, and she was too drunk to walk and that he covered her up because it was raining.

Lawrence claimed she was too drunk to walk but sober enough to smoke with him at the bar after he brought her there and that she was fine, according to the petition. He had her cell phone and a spare key.

Lawrence also told police the marijuana in the hotel room was his, that he packaged marijuana to sell, the petition notes. He acknowledged having a felony conviction in Texas and told police the loaded gun found in his hotel room was his.

Finally, according to the petition, Lawrence told police he woke up and found Bresley dead, and that she had been snoring around 1 or 2 a.m. and around 7 a.m. he found her dead. He said they were drinking Hennessy and smoking marijuana in his room, but he denied they used cocaine.

The petition said Lawrence told police he fell asleep before Bresley, and that she had used cocaine, but not that particular night.

After finding her dead, the filing says, Lawrence said he went and got the other man who stayed at the Crest Hill Inn to help, and he claimed it was the other man's idea to come up with the plan to move her body in the shopping cart, put her into the front passenger seat and drive her body to Gustos Bar. Afterward, Lawrence said he called 911 using her phone.

Will County court documents submitted in Lawrence's petition to deny bail state, "video shows (victim) go into (defendant's) room but not come out alive and other than under a blanket on a cart."

The preliminary autopsy is pending toxicology results. No signs of trauma were found, Will County prosecutors informed Judge Richardson at last week's detention hearing.

Related Joliet Patch story:

Death Of Crest Hill Woman, 44, Leads To Concealment Charges