ABIGAYLE, CASSANDRA, BLAKE VAUGHN - 12, 11, and 8 - (2007) / Accused: Christopher Vaughn, father Chicago IL

A Will County judge has OK’d more testing of evidence in the case against an Oswego man accused of killing his family in 2007.
Both sides in the Christopher D. Vaughn murder case want to test the coat the Oswego man was wearing when his wife and three children were found shot to death inside the family’s SUV in Will County in 2007.




Christopher Vaughn



Will County prosecutors have had the coat tested in the past, and they have one more test they want performed, Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Fitzgerald said Monday.
“We’re asking that there be additional DNA testing on one area on the front of the jacket,” he said.
After that, the coat will be sent to a ballistics expert in Arizona by defense attorney Gerald Kielian. Tests the defense has requested will be performed on Feb. 14.
Judge Dan Rozak approved the testing requests Monday.
Vaughn, 36, is accused of killing his wife and three children on June 14, 2007. State Police found their bodies early that morning inside the family’s vehicle, which was parked on an Interstate 55 frontage road. Kimberly Vaughn, 34, and the couple’s children, Abigayle, 12, Cassandra, 11, and Blake, 8, had been shot to death as they sat in the car.

Christopher Vaughn Arrested for Murder of His Family

Christopher Vaughn, 32, was arrested at a funeral home in St. Charles, Missouri for the murder of his wife and children just before he was to attend their memorial services.

He was initially not a suspect in the case.

On June 15^th, after initial questioning Christopher Vaughn was released, as reported by CBS News and the Associated Press

The Chicago Sun-Times was reporting that Vaughn told police that his wife Kimberly had been the one to fire the shots. Vaughn was questioned for hours, and had received treatment at a hospital for the gunshot wound in his leg.

The murders occurred in the family's SUV. Kimberly, Vaughn's wife, was shot once. Each of the children were shot twice, including 12 year old Abigayle, 11 year old Cassandra, and eight year old Blake. Vaughn himself had a gunshot wound in his thigh. He flagged down a passing motorist on a service road afterward, about forty miles southwest of Chicago in Channahon.

Christopher Vaughn works as a computer forensic advisor. He is being charged with eight counts of murder, two charges per victim. One set of charges alleges he shot with intent to kill and the other alleges he shot knowing that it was likely to cause death or great bodily harm. It has yet to be disclosed what evidence was found in order to bring Vaughn from not a suspect to the arrest. The arrest warrant was granted by a judge on Friday. Authorites say that the charges were brought forth from an investigation of phone records, interviews, computer files and forensic evidence.

The mourners at the service were alerted to the arrest of Vaughn nearing its close, at New Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Charles, Missouri.

The family had lived in St. Charles, Missouri, but had moved from Washington state to the Chicago area.

Prosecutor James Glasgow has 120 days to seek the death penalty and said, "We are hopeful that with the issuance of these charges that Kimberly Vaughn and her three beautiful children can truly rest in peace...everyone who came in contact with this case was moved by what they saw."

The bodies were not present at the memorial service. Due to an attempt
to avoid media attention, the bodies of Kimberly Vaughn and the children
were buried privately in a nearby cemetery.

Glasgow hopes that
Vaughn will soon be extradited from Missouri back to Illinois. He also
said that Vaughn indicated that he planned to fight the extradition.
Vaughn is currently being held without bail at St. Charles County Detention Center, per authorities.

Sources:

Man Charged With Murder After Family Found Dead in SUV

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Prosecutors Want to Use Email, Chat Evidence Against Christopher Vaughn

Tuesday, 12 Apr 2011, 3:25 PM CDT

Sun-Times Media Wire


Joliet, Ill. - Will County prosecutors want to admit e-mail and Internet chat evidence into the murder case against Christopher Vaughn. Vaughn is accused of murdering his wife, Kimberly, 34; and children Abigayle, 12; Cassandra, 11; and Blake, 8. Vaugh’s defense is that his wife was depressed and suicidal and she shot him in the leg while the family’s SUV was parked along a frontage road in Channahon Township in June 2007. Then she turned the gun on her children and herself while her husband was out of the vehicle, he told authorities.

Asst. State’s Atty. John Connor filed a motion late last year asking that the e-mails between Kimberly and her husband, sister, co-worker and fellow students at the online University of Phoenix will show she was not depressed or suicidal. The “state-of-mind” evidence will help prove Christopher Vaughn was the killer, Connor said. He was ready to argue the motion in court Tuesday, but defense attorney Gerald Kielian was not ready. Instead, the sides agreed to come back for a status hearing on May 10 when a new hearing date will be set for the motion. Also to be determined at a later date is where money will come from to pay Vaughn’s defense attorneys. They were being paid from the state’s capital defense fund when Vaughn was facing the death penalty. But the death penalty was abolished last month and the fund is going to be terminated. Vaughn’s case was decertified as a death penalty case by the state’s attorney’s office as soon as Gov. Pat Quinn signed the bill into law. At the time of the murders, the family lived inOswego, and Vaughn worked as a private investigator. The family was en route to a Springfield water park when the shootings happened.

No death penalty; Christopher Vaughn still awaits trial

Friday, March 18, 2011 4:47 pm



SUBMITTED PHOTO
Kimberly Vaughn graduated from the University of Phoenix on June 9, 2007, with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice.

Christopher Vaughn's life no longer hangs in the balance. The death penalty, as of this month, is over in Illinois.

Still, there is no date for his murder trial in Joliet, Ill.

Still, there is no closure for the family of Kimberly Vaughn.

Christopher Vaughn, 36, is accused of pulling off Interstate 55 in the early hours of June 14, 2007, and shooting to death his wife Kimberly and the couple's three children. Abigayle was 12; Cassandra 11; and Blake 8.

"It will be four years in June," says Susan Phillips, Kimberly's mother. "We are still at day one. You don't really begin the grieving process until the trial is over.

"Once you have a verdict you do pick up the pieces and move on," she says. "Until then, the pieces are just lying there."

Susan and Del Phillips — Kimberly's parents — live in St. Charles.

Pierre and Gail Vaughn — Christopher's parents — live in Dardenne Prairie.

Gail Vaughn declined to talk to me about the past four years.

Susan and Del Phillips are ambivalent about the abolishment of the Illinois death penalty. Susan wondered if the case will now move more quickly through the system.

"Possibly," said Charles Pelkie, spokesman for the Will County State's Attorney's Office.

Susan will drive to Will County for the next hearing, April 12. Usually they last five minutes, Susan says, and seem to accomplish little.

At home, they still have Smokey, a 15-year-old miniature schnauzer who belonged to Kimberly and her family.

The pine tree they planted in the backyard in memory of Kimberly and her three children is now 7 feet tall.

This month they received a card in the mail from two of Cassandra's grade school friends, now high school freshmen, who remembered Cassandra's March 12 birthday.

Since the deaths, Susan has trouble sleeping. "When I'm supposed to be sleeping, my subconscious mind is going a mile a minute."

She is sustained by her faith and her church, New Hope Presbyterian in St. Peters, where Abigayle was the first baby baptized.

Susan sings in the choir. She knits prayer shawls. She attends Bible study. She continues to hurt.

She had taught German at Pattonville High School until retiring two years ago. There were days, after the deaths, when she couldn't make it to school.

For many years at the end of her school day the classroom phone would ring at exactly 2:14 p.m. It was Kimberly, calling from Seattle or, later, Illinois, to chat about the day's adventures, the kids' accomplishments.

"And then the phone did not ring at 2:14 p.m. anymore," Susan says.

The Will County victim's advocate has already warned that there will be times at trial when Susan will need to leave the court room to avoid seeing crime-scene photos or hearing details from the coroner.

"Families want to know things," Susan says, "but there are things that if you know you will never be able to put back in the box."

Susan, 66, has tried to move beyond anger.

"I am not letting it take any more from me than it has already taken," she says.

The Associated Press reported in February that a coat Vaughn wore the day of the shootings has been returned from a testing labin Arizona. Presumably, both sides are interested in the blood-spray pattern on it.

Police say Vaughn shot Kimberly once in the head and shot each of the children twice, and then shot himself in the left thigh and left wrist. Neither of his injuries was serious.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Vaughn told police he had pulled off the highway because Kimberly felt sick. He told police he got out of the family's SUV to adjust the luggage rack and, while getting back in, noticed his leg was bleeding, so he went for help. He said he remembered little after that.

According to published reports, Vaughn told police that Kimberly shot the children, then shot him and killed herself.

The Will County state's attorney drew a different conclusion. He believes Vaughn used his own 9 mm handgun to slay his family.

Vaughn's defense was funded through the Capital Litigation Trust Fund, a pool of money available to prosecutors and defense attorneys in capital cases in Illinois. Vaughn has been represented by two top lawyers — Gerald Kielian of Joliet and John Rogers, who is with Scott Rosenblum's firm in St. Louis.

It remains to be seen if they will continue to represent Vaughn.

Kimberly is a 1991 graduate of St. Charles West High School, where she played volleyball and soccer. Christopher is a graduate of Francis Howell High School, where he played soccer.

The couple lived in St. Peters seven years. They moved to Washington state in 2001 and to Illinois in 2005.

There are moments, Susan says, that lift her spirits. Moments that seem to verge on divine.

Two years ago Susan was cleaning out her sewing kit when she unearthed a handwritten card she had received from Kimberly.

There was no special occasion. Kimberly, her gregarious and generous daughter, simply had taken a moment to let her mother knowshe was an inspiration.

"It was a very joyful thing to find," Susan says.

Christopher Vaughn's Lawyers Quit Case After Money Well Runs Dry
Deprived of cash from the state's capital litigation fund, the lawyers for an Oswego man charged with gunning down his wife and young children dump the case.

May 10, 2011
When Christopher Vaughn faced the death penalty, his attorneys had access to millions of dollars in state money to fund his defense and buy their time.

But after Governor Quinn banned capital punishment in March, that money went away, and on Tuesday, so did Vaughn's lawyers.

"We have absolutely no source of funding for Mr. Vaughn,"Joliet attorney Gerald Kielian told Judge Daniel Rozak as he entered his motion to withdraw from the case.

Vaughn, 36, faces charges he murdered his wife, Kimberly, 34, and three children — Blake, 8, Cassandra, 11, and Abigayle, 12. Vaughn was also represented by St. Louis attorney John Rogers. Rogers failed to attend Tuesday's hearing, sending instead Gibert Sison, an associate from his firm.

"Talking to Mr. Rogers, it's going to take four to five months of intense preparation" before going to trial, Sison told the judge. And Rogers apparently did not feel he has made enough money to do that kind of work.

Rozak appointed the public defender's office to the case. George Lenard, a Joliet attorney with a private practice who also works as a part-time public defender, landed the lead role in Vaughn's defense.

Among the more notable clients Lenard has represented are Craig Stebic and Drew Peterson. Stebic's wife, Lisa Stebic, vanished in April 2007. Stebic has not been charged with harming his missing wife.

Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, went missing six months after Lisa Stebic. The state police believe Stacy Peterson may have been slain and named Drew Peterson the sole suspect in their investigation but have yet to charge him in connection with her disappearance.

The state police did arrest Peterson two years ago on charges he murdered his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found drowned in a dry bathtub in March 2004. Peterson has yet to go to trial. He has been held at the county jail on a $20 million bond since his arrest in May 2009.

Lenard quit the Peterson case after a dispute with attorney Joel Brodsky, whose involvement drove two other lawyers away from the Peterson camp as well.

Lenard's latest client, Vaughn, has been locked up in the same jail for nearly twice as long.

Vaughn and his family were heading from their Oswego home to a Springfield water park in June 2007 when he allegedly shot his wife and children to death as they sat in a sport utility vehicle on the frontage road outside Channahon, then put a bullet in his own leg.

Vaughn reportedly claimed that his wife was the one with the gun and that she shot him in the leg, then killed the children and herself.

As he has been in jail for four years, Vaughn, a former private investigator, is indigent, Kielian pointed out during Tuesday's hearing. Vaughn acknowledged that was the case.

But broke or not, Kielian said he and Rogers tried to stick by their client after they lost access to the capital litigation fund, but only so long as Will County was paying the bills.

Kielian said Chief Judge Gerald Kinney discussed this option with Will County Board President Jim Moustis but Moustis apparently was not interested in picking up the private attorneys' tab.

Lenard will act as Vaughn's lead counsel and be joined by two full-time public defenders who have yet to be appointed. Vaughn is due back in court June 23 for a status hearing.

http://shorewood-il.patch.com/articles/christopher-vaughns-lawyers-quit-case-after-money-well-runs-dry

Accused Family Killer Christopher Vaughn Read Articles About Staging Crime Scenes: Prosecutors



Updated: Monday, 27 Jun 2011, 7:22 PM CDT

Channahon, Ill. - A magazine article about staging crime scenes and “making the death appear to be a suicide” was taken by police from the home of Christopher Vaughn after the June 2007 shooting deaths of his wife and three children, newly released court records show.
Vaughn, 36, also spent a half-hour at a Plainfield shooting range the night before the murders, the documents say, firing at targets with a gun later seized by police from between his dead wife’s feet.
The documents show the Vaughn family’s trip to Knight’s Water Park in Springfield also was planned the night before the murders, reached after Vaughn’s wife accused him of spending too little time with their kids. Meanwhile, an exotic dancer told police Vaughn had written her a poem about “ancient souls” and bad timing, and Vaughn might have explored the possibility of faking his death.
Finally, it appears the Oswego man wrote an ominous blog entry just weeks before the shooting about “wrapping up a few last things” before disappearing into the remote wilderness.
The clues and insights into the Vaughn murders became public after Will County Judge Daniel Rozak ordered the case file unsealed Thursday. The records inside show his three children -- Abigayle, 12, Cassandra, 11, and Blake, 8 -- were each shot twice.
Kimberly Vaughn was shot once under her chin, the records say.
A filing from February 2011 says Christopher Vaughn, who had been shot twice, waved down a passing motorist and said he thought his wife shot him. On Monday, Vaughn was charged with all four murders, but his defense team argues his wife turned the gun on him and the children before killing herself.
It all happened after Vaughn pulled the family’s SUV over on Interstate 55 near Channahon on the way to the Springfield water park on June 14, 2007.
While prosecutors haven’t set forth a motive, Vaughn’s wife had a $1 million life insurance policy that listed him as a beneficiary. Vaughn also confessed to an affair in December 2006 after a trip to Mexico. Court records show the couple had been fighting, and he would sometimes sleep at the office.
Prosecutors have said Vaughn was frustrated with his life and wanted to live in the Canadian wilderness. The records show someone using his e-mail address set up a blog site for a user named “dewoodsman,” and at least one man knew Vaughn as “Flint.”
Some “dewoodsman” posts can still be found online. Though Vaughn isn’t identified as their author, they appear under his user name and are signed with his e-mail address. One, signed “Flint,” was posted one month before Vaughn’s wife and children were killed.
“I am working on wrapping up a few last things and then I am headed out for the long walk,” it reads. “I’ve been taking continually longer and more remote trips figuring that when the time comes I’ll be ready.”
Will county prosecutors and Vaughn’s public defenders declined to comment Monday on the “dewoodsman” entries found online.
Court records show Vaughn’s former private attorneys, who left the case earlier this year, asked a judge not to admit several pieces of evidence.
Among them was the article found in a magazine for private investigators about the effect of television on criminal suspects who stage crime scenes based on Hollywood portrayals. A portion of the article talked about making deaths appear like suicides. The cases referenced involved rape-murders made to look like hangings.
Vaughn, a private investigator, told police “clearly and unequivocally” he never read it.
He did not deny, however, that he spent a half hour at Mega Sports Shooting Equipment and Range in Plainfield the night before his family was killed. His attorneys said his visit was irrelevant.
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/christopher-vaughn-abigayle-cassandra-blake-kimberly-murdered-water-park-20110627

VAUGHN CHRISTOPHER 8 30 11 406 930 07CF001308 0 MURDER/INTENT TO 3 Pretrial
http://www.willcountycircuitcourt.com/

10/20/2011 9:30 am 406 Hearing

http://66.158.72.242/pa/cms/Schedule.php

Christopher Vaughn Still Waiting For Murder Trial
Brian Kelly
November 9, 2011 11:23 AM

JOLIET, Il. (KMOX)-The former St. Charles, Mo. man charged with killing his wife and three children outside Chicago in June of 2007, will have to wait a little longer before going to trial.

A judge this week set a November 22 hearing date, to decide if hundreds of emails written by Kimberly Vaughn will be allowed at Christopher Vaughn’s trial.

Vaughn allegedly shot Kimberly and their 8, 11 and 12-year-old children on an I-55 frontage road. He told police his wife shot the children and herself, and wounded him.

Vaughn’s attorney is arguing that the emails paint Kimberly as a sympathetic figure, and Vaughn in a negative way.

The Vaughn’s lived in Oswego, Il. at the time of the killings.

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2011/11/09/christopher-vaughn-still-waiting-for-murder-trial/

Lawyers Still Duking It Out Over Slain Vaughn Wife's Emails
A prosecutor and a defense lawyer went toe-to-toe for a third long day in an epic battle over whether a dead wife's emails can be used at Christopher Vaughn's murder trial.
By Joseph Hosey Email the author November 23, 2011

The bell rang on round 3 in what has turned out to be a prolonged struggle over emails written by the slain wife of accused killer Christopher Vaughn.

Over the course of about three hours on Tuesday, defense attorney George Lenard verbally reviewed each of the 67 emails Will County Assistant State's Attorney John Connor wants presented as evidence at Vaughn's murder trial.

Those 67 are what was left over after Connor sifted through hundreds of messages penned by Vaughn's wife, Kimberly Vaughn, up until the night before her death on the Interstate 55 Frontage Road outside Channahon in June 2007.

The family was heading from their Oswego home to a Springfield waterpark when — according to Christopher Vaughn — his distraught wife shot and killed their children Blake, 8, Cassandra, 11, and Abigayle, 12.

Christopher Vaughn also claimed Kimberly Vaughn, 34, put a bullet in his leg before he was able to flee with his life. After he escaped, he said, Kimberly Vaughn turned the gun on herself and committed suicide.

But prosecutors contend that Vaughn killed everyone and shot himself in the leg so he could blame it all on his wife, whom he told detectives was despondent after learning of an extramarital affair he indulged in while visiting Mexico.

Connor wants the jury to see Kimberly Vaughn's emails because he says they prove she was not despondent or depressed. On the contrary, he said, the emails appear to have been written by a devoted mother and wife who was enthused about completing an online course of study at the University of Phoenix.

In addition, one of Kimberly Vaughn's emails revealed that she practiced shooting on only one occasion prior to her death, and fired but two rounds during the session. She also said her aversion to firearms was an obstacle in pursuing a career as a military officer.

Christopher Vaughn, on the other hand, spent a half hour at a Plainfield shooting range brushing up on his marksmanship the night before his family was gunned down, according to court records. The gun he used at the range was reportedly found beneath his dead wife's feet.

Lenard argued that the emails, coupled with video of Christopher Vaughn's interrogation by the Illinois State Police, portray Kimberly Vaughn as a sympathetic figure and put his client in a less favorable light.

"This is highly prejudicial to Mr. Vaughn," Lenard told Will County Judge Daniel Rozak, who has yet to rule on the email issue.

http://oswego.patch.com/articles/lawyers-still-duking-it-out-over-slain-vaughn-wife-s-emails-b512f0bb

My feeling is that the e-mails SHOULD be included in the trial. They hold valuable evidentiary material as to the state of mind of the victim and her perceptions of the accused.

No doubt the defense feels they are prejudicial as to the fact that they have no indicators of suicide and may include accounts of previous violence and threats of same from the accused.

I agree. I think they should be allowed and don't understand why one court may allow something like that and another court may not.

Christopher Vaughn Case Continues Through New Year
The Will County judge presiding over Christopher Vaughn's murder case put off making a key decision until January.

Christopher Vaughn will be ringing in another New Year in the Will County jail as he waits for his murder case to crawl through the system.

Vaughn — charged with killing his wife and three young children in June 2007 — was scheduled to find out if emails penned by his slain wife could be used as evidence against him, but Judge Daniel Rozak had not finished reviewing the mountain of messages.

"I promising you, I'm working diligently on it," Rozak told defense attorney George Lenard and prosecutor Mike Fitzgerald during a brief Thursday morning hearing.

Rozak scheduled a Jan. 12 return date to hand down his decision on whether any of the dozens of emails prosecutors want to use can be seen by a jury.

The emails prove Vaughn's wife, Kimberly Vaughn, was in a healthy state of mind and not homicidal and suicidal as her husband told investigators after her death, Assistant State's Attorney John Connor explained at an earlier hearing.

Christopher Vaughn claimed his distraught wife opened fire on his children — Blake, 8, Cassandra, 11, and Abigayle, 12 — killing them all as they sat in the family's minivan.

Christopher Vaughn also told detectives that Kimberly Vaughn shot him in the leg before he fled the van. She then turned the gun on herself and committed suicide, according to Christopher Vaughn's story.

But prosecutors maintain Christopher Vaughn murdered his entire family and then shot himself in the leg to bolster the cover story that his wife did the killings.

The Vaughns were heading from their home in Oswego to a Springfield waterpark when Kimberly Vaughn and the children were killed. They were shot to death on the Interstate 55 frontage road outside Channahon and near Shorewood.

Christopher Vaughn could have faced the death penalty if convicted of the murders but slipped that possibility when Governor Quinn banned capital punishment in March.

http://oswego.patch.com/articles/christopher-vaughn-case-continues-through-new-year

Judge Rules to Allow Jury to See Slain Wife's Email Messages in Vaughn Trial
Email messages written by the slain wife of accused killer Christopher Vaughn can be seen by a jury, a Will County judge ruled Thursday.


The attorney for accused killer Christopher Vaughn said the Oswego man wouldn't "have a chance" of beating a murder rap if a jury got a look at emails written by his slain wife.

Chance or no chance, Will County Judge Daniel Rozak cleared the way Thursday morning for a jury to see at least 50 of Kimberly Vaughn's emails, along with what the judge called "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds" of computer chats the dead woman carried on with friends and family, including the husband charged with killing her.

Prosecutors have pushed to get the messages allowed as evidence to counter Christopher Vaughn's claim to police that his wife gunned down their three children and shot him in the leg before turning the pistol on herself and committing suicide.

Christopher Vaughn reportedly explained to detectives that he had confessed to his wife about an extramarital dalliance. That led to Kimberly Vaughn becoming unhinged and eventually murdering the children, trying to kill him and finally taking her own life in June 2007, Christopher Vaughn told police.

But the emails do not show Kimberly Vaughn as either homicidal or suicidal, Assistant State's Attorney John Connor said at previous hearings. They instead portray her as a vibrant, positive person on the verge of embarking on a new career.

Police and prosecutors maintain that it was actually Christopher Vaughn, 37, who killed his wife and three children—Blake, 8, Cassandra, 11, and Abigayle, 12. Vaughn then shot his own leg to bolster his cover story, according to prosecutors.

The family was heading to a Springfield water park but stopped on the Interstate 55 frontage road outside Channahon and near Shorewood. It was there Christopher Vaughn murdered his wife and children as they sat in the family minivan, according to police and prosecutors.

Defense attorney George Lenard had previously argued that the emails cast his client in a bad light. Also, video of Christopher Vaughn's questioning by the state police is not likely to score him points with a jury, as he claimed to detectives that he had been unfaithful to his wife, Lenard pointed out.

Even more potentially damaging to Christopher Vaughn's case is that an email revealed that Kimberly Vaughn practiced shooting on only one occasion, during which she fired but two rounds. She also said her aversion to firearms was an obstacle in pursuing a career as a military officer.

Christopher Vaughn, on the other hand, spent a half hour at a Plainfield shooting range brushing up on his marksmanship the night before his family was gunned down, according to court records. The pistol he used at the range was reportedly found beneath his dead wife's feet.

In October, Lenard told Judge Rozak that letting a jury read the emails would effectively convict his client.

"If the jury gets these emails," he said, "he doesn't have a chance of winning this case."

Rozak has yet to decide whether to green-light another 16 messages. He also put off ruling on how much to redact in one particular email exchange. The redaction concerns email conversations about the criminal justice system Kimberly Vaughn engaged in with her classmates from the University of Phoenix.

"I have a lot of trouble with her talking about defense attorneys and public defenders," the judge said, noting the discussions involve civil lawsuits following acquittals in murder trials and specifically mention O.J. Simpson.

"I really don't want to give that to the jury," he said.


http://shorewood-il.patch.com/articles/slain-wife-s-messages-allowed