Prosecutors: Wilson Used Foreign Coins Stolen from O'Laughlin Home To Pay For Cab

Caption: Kelli Joy O’Laughlin

The fourth day of testimony in the trial of the Chicago man accused of killing 14-year-old Kelli O’Laughlin was marked by the girl’s fourth-grade school picture on the “Justice for Kelli Joy O’Laughlin Facebook page,” where supporters have been providing trial updates. Each day of testimony is marked by a corresponding grade school photo of the full-of-life girl.

The photos of the Kelli gazing across time are about to give way to graphic autopsy photos from the day she was found dead in her Indian Head Park home in October 2011, when testimony resumes in court on Tuesday.

John Wilson, Jr., the defendant, has sat in the Bridgeview courtroom with his legs shackled, according to news reports.

Highlights of Monday’s testimony included:

• Police explained to jurors how they tracked the defendant down, using digital data from his own and Kelli’s stolen cell phones, ABC-7 reported.
• Foreign coins were also reportedly stolen from the O’Laughlin home when it was burglarized on Oct. 27, 2011, the day Kelli was found dead inside the house, reports said. Prosecutors allege that Wilson paid for a cab ride using foreign coins from a 7-Eleven in Willow Springs to the CTA stop at Midway Airport.
• Another expert testified that CTA’s network of 23,000 cameras picked up a person matching Wilson’s description as he made his way on to the Orange Line at Midway Airport, While riding the rails, he took a selfie with his cell phone, which he sent to a girlfriend, ABC-7 reported.
• A man described as a former friend of John Wilson, Jr., told jurors that Wilson called him the night of the murder asking how much five British pounds was worth in U.S. currency.
• Prosecutors plan to present more evidence tracking Wilson’s movements via cell phone towers and equipment showing Kelli’s cell phone also traveling with Wilson at the time, reports said.

In a status update on the Justice for Kelli Facebook page, supporters said “it breaks our heart to write about the testimonies of [Monday’s] trial,” demurring to news media reports instead. Defense attorneys moved to strike Kelli O’Laughlin’s autopsy photos from being shown in court for fear of prejudicing the jury, Ben Bradley reported for ABC-7.

Because Wlson’s attorneys brought up the autopsy photos when they suggested that the 14-year-old may have committed suicide, prosecutors successfully argued that the jurors needed to the see the autopsy photos to establish that she did not kill herself.

Kelli’s parents, Brenda and John O’Laughlin, have also indicated that they will stay in the courtroom when the graphic photos are shown in trial on Tuesday.

This past weekend “as if the O’Laughlin family doesn’t have enough on its plate,” Facebook supporters said, Kelli’s parents, family and friends went to Ronald McDonald House near Loyola University Medical Center to cook dinner and spend time with the families staying there while their children are being treated at the hospital.

“This was something that Kelli would love to do. Kelli loved to comfort families during difficult times,” her Facebook page said.