Bloomingdale murder suspect testifies that shooting was accident
A Hinsdale man testified that he only visited Nate Fox on the night of Dec. 22, 2014, at his Bloomingdale home to resolve what he thought was an issue the two men had related to a Hinsdale woman. The two shots fired that killed Fox, he said, were an "accident."
Jeffrey Keller, 54, spent most of Thursday testifying in his own defense against five counts of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Fox.
While prosecutors have said Keller spent a year obsessed with and stalking Fox, Keller said it was Fox who was following him. Keller said he had seen Fox, who he believed was having an affair with a woman Keller had a relationship with, three times in the two months before the shooting, including an episode where he said Fox was following him in his car and an episode in a parking lot where Keller said Fox shook his head and made a gun gesture with his hand.
Keller said he felt the sightings were leading up to an "inevitable" confrontation. The fourth time Keller said Fox "showed up in (his) world" was when he saw Fox parked outside Keller's Oakbrook Terrace office,
"The event in the parking garage lot brought on a full-blown panic attack," Keller said. "I was having convulsions. I was sweating. I couldn't breathe."
On the night of the shooting, armed with a 9 mm handgun he had stolen from his nephew in Indiana in his left jacket pocket, Keller parked in front of the Bloomingdale home Fox shared with his girlfriend and waited for Fox to arrive.
"The gun was a deterrent," Keller told jurors. "If the confrontation turned violent, I could say, 'I have a concealed carry. This isn't how we should handle this.'"
Keller said he approached Fox as Fox sat in his driveway and told him he'd like to talk to him. Keller said he dropped his keys as Fox was exiting his car and that as he stood up, Fox was looming over him.
"He grabbed my left arm. The gun went off and I ran to my car. It literally happened in the flash of an eye," Keller said. "(The gun) went off and it was in my hands."
Scared and shaken, Keller said he drove back to his Oakbrook Terrace office and iced his wounds from the encounter before eventually returning to his Hinsdale couch. For the next several days, Keller said, he "went through the motions" before learning Dec. 27 that Fox had died.
"I was absolutely devastated," Keller said. "I went to resolve an issue, a firearm discharged, a man died, and I didn't have any more information than I went there with."
Prosecutors have argued Keller stalked Fox for more than a year before gunning the man down as he left his vehicle in his driveway on the 200 block of Tamarack Drive. They said Keller held a delusional belief that Fox was having a romantic relationship with a woman Keller was having an "emotional affair" with.
Prosecutors allege Keller became angry and accused the woman of having a relationship with Fox, with whom she previously worked at an insurance agency. Despite her denials, prosecutors said, Keller was obsessed with the thought of her being with another man and wanted Fox "out of the way."
Keller eventually confessed to the killing to an old college friend in Texas, which led to him being arrested as he attempted to leave his office on the evening of Jan. 14, 2015.
Defense attorneys said they expect to rest their case Friday before closing arguments and sending the case to the jury.