2 Little Girls Found Their Dad Dead In Shorewood Bedroom, Mom To Judge: 'I Don't Feel Safe With Briana Out'

JOLIET, IL — Will County Judge Sarah Jones rejected efforts by Will County Public Defender Samantha Kerins asking that Shorewood's drug-induced homicide defendant, Briana Trumbo, be allowed to return to Colorado, where she provides care to an elderly man despite being unlicensed as a caregiver.

Wednesday afternoon in Courtroom 501 marked the SAFE-T-Act detention hearing for the 34-year-old Trumbo, who is charged with the September 2023 drug-induced homicide of 24-year-old Shorewood resident Trent "TD" Veleker.

Judge Jones allowed Assistant Will County State's Attorney James Zanayed to call the mother of the victim and the mother of Veleker's two young daughters to testify at Wednesday's hearing. Both women implored Judge Jones to keep Trumbo detained in the Will County Jail.

Rachel Veleker, the victim's mother, read her victim impact statement from a podium, declaring, "My family has experienced a devastating loss as a result of this case.

She noted it is evident that "Ms. Trumbo struggles with addiction" herself and that her concern was that the pressure of addiction will cause her to relapse. She "may not remain in Illinois. She resides in Colorado."

Given the seriousness of her charges, Rachel Veleker feared that if Trumbo is released from the Will County Jail, she will go back to Colorado and fail to appear in Will County to face her Class X felony charges.

She respectfully asked Judge Jones to keep Trumbo incarcerated under the SAFE-T-Act to ensure her accountability and to allow the legal process to continue.

Tamara Villegas told the courtroom that she is the mother of Trent's two young girls, and the girls were only 3 and 4 years old when they discovered their father's deceased body on Sept. 16, 2023. "September 16, 2023, was the worst day of my life, and I lost a big piece of me. My daughters should not be the ones to find their dad on the floor dead," Villegas told the courtroom. "Now I'm a single mom at age 25."

Villegas told everyone that she becomes so sad when she brings her daughters to their school events and sees other children with their fathers, knowing that Trent "is in heaven and my kids don't have a dad. It hurts me every day that they don't have a dad. He loved them so much."

As for Trumbo, Villegas pointed out that she was smiling for her Will County Jail mugshot that was taken last week. The jail logs indicate she comes from Thornton, Colorado.

"I feel like she has zero remorse," Villegas announced to Judge Jones. "My daughters still miss their dad. She is a selfish human being. I don't feel safe with Briana out. I just don't want her near my family."

During Wednesday's hearing, Kerins, the public defender, argued in favor of allowing her new client to go back home to Colorado. Kerins said that Trumbo resides with an older man named Richard Whitmore, and that she provides care for him. Her husband also lives there as well. Trumbo also has a 7-year-old daughter, but the child does not live with her. The child lives with Trumbo's mother-in-law, the lawyer explained.

When Jones asked follow-up questions, Kerins confirmed that Trumbo is not a licensed caregiver through either the state of Colorado or through any health care agency.

Back in 2023, Trumbo came to live in the Joliet area, after being homeless in Colorado. Prosecutors said Trumbo was living in Shorewood at the time of Trent's death, which was attributed to fentanyl and alprazolam. Zanayed explained that the autopsy found needle marks in Trent's arm, and several items of drug paraphernalia were found inside the bedroom on Summit Creek Drive where he died. His grandmother was the last person to see him alive, at around 11:30 p.m. on Sept. 15, 2023, the prosecutor noted.

The extensive Shorewood Police investigation into Trent's death obtained the Snapchat conversations between Trent and Trumbo over the period of several hours leading up to his death. He agreed to pay her $40 for heroin that she agreed to obtain from her drug dealer, who lived on Joliet's east side, according to Zanayed.

"She smoked heroin herself, while (Trent) usually shoots heroin with a needle," Zanayed explained to Judge Jones.

The prosecutor said that Trent believed he was purchasing heroin from Trumbo, but in reality, he obtained and injected himself with a deadly dosage of fentanyl.

The prosecutor revealed that after Trent died, Trumbo went online "and looked up the obituary of Trent." She also deleted seven messages she sent to Trent on the Friday night of his apparent death. During a recent four-hour interview with Shorewoood police back in Colorado, Trumbo "admitted to bringing the drugs to the victim," Zanayed remarked.

At one point, Judge Jones asked the prosecutor if he knew about the relationship between the victim and Trumbo.

"Judge, that's unclear," he offered. "It's unclear. The defendant didn't believe they were close friends. They may have been in the same sort of friend group, but I really don't have an answer for you."

Zanayed said that since Trumbo returned to Colorado, she has had three separate police contacts and/or arrests with Fort Collins police involving meth or fentanyl. "I strenuously object to her going back to Colorado," Zanayed remarked.