Appeal rejected in Crystal Lake murder case
A state appellate court has upheld the murder conviction and life sentence of a Texas man found guilty in 2005 of murdering his son-in-law in Crystal Lake as the victim's two young daughters watched.
The 2nd District Appellate Court of Illinois, in a unanimous decision, rejected Adriaan Vlot's bid for a new trial over his claims a judge barred his lawyers from putting on evidence showing he had legitimate reason to fear the man he killed.
A McHenry County jury found Vlot, 76, guilty of first-degree murder for the fatal November 2003 shooting of Philip Goldstein in the parking lot of the Skyridge Club apartments in Crystal Lake.
Authorities said Vlot, of Weatherford, Texas, shot the 43-year-old man in the head with a military rifle as he backed out of a parking spot. Goldstein's daughters, at the time 9 and 10 years old, were in his SUV's backseat at the time.
Defense lawyers claimed Vlot accidentally shot his son-in-law to death when he went to his home to confront him over his divorce from Vlot's daughter. Vlot claimed he brought a rifle to the showdown because he feared Goldstein might harm him.
However, defense efforts during the trial to show those fears were legitimate suffered when the case's judge refused to allow testimony about a prior clash between the two men as well as Vlot's belief that Goldstein was behind a 2001 shooting on his Texas property.
Writing for the appellate court, Justice R. Peter Grometer sided with the McHenry County judge, ruling that the prior incidents had no relevance to the fatal shooting. Further, Texas authorities arrested two men with no relation to Goldstein for the 2001 incident.
"Even defense counsel admitted at trial that he had no direct proof that the two men arrested were connected to Philip," Grometer wrote.
Vlot, who is serving his sentence at the Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet, may now take his appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court. But unlike the appellate court, the supreme court has no obligation to hear the case.