Prosecutors aim to admit new info in Mchenry Co. shooting case

A Southwest suburban man charged with shooting his former wife during a car chase through Lake in the Hills and Huntley told a worker at a favorite dining spot just weeks earlier that he was thinking about killing his ex.

McHenry County prosecutors unveiled that evidence in court documents filed as part of their effort to introduce evidence of prior intimidating and threatening, acts suspect Edward Johncours committed toward his ex-wife in the months leading to her near-fatal shooting in April.

Prosecutors are asking a judge to admit the evidence over an expected defense objection when Johncours, 67, of Montgomery, goes to trial early next year for attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, armed violence and violating an order of protection.

"Evidence surrounding these incidents wherein the defendant intimidated Gloria (Johncours) tends to show the defendant's intent to commit attempted first-degree murder," Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Donna Kelly states in the request.

That evidence includes testimony about a well-documented November 2006 incident outside the McHenry County courthouse, when Johncours was accused of using his car to push the car his ex-wife was driving through a red light and into the path of oncoming vehicles on a state highway.

Prosecutors also hope to present testimony of a March incident in which Gloria Johncours claims her ex-husband followed her in his car while she drove in the Lake in the Hills area.

More revealing, however, may be testimony from a worker at a Montgomery restaurant frequented by Johncours in the weeks before the shooting.

The worker, documents state, claims that about a month before his wife was shot Johncours told him that ongoing legal proceedings from the couple's bitter divorce were not going well.

"He said he should just shoot the (expletive) and be done with it," court documents state.

Johncours is accused of shooting his 61-year-old ex-wife in the head as he chased her car in his own vehicle through parts of Lake in the Hills and Huntley.

After shooting Gloria Johncours, police said, Johncours drove a few more miles, pulled over and shot himself in the chest in a failed suicide attempt.

His ex-wife, a real estate agent from Lake in the Hills, spent nearly four weeks hospitalized after the shooting recovering from the gunshot wound that nearly killed her.

McHenry County Judge Sharon Prather last set a Feb. 22 trial date for Johncours at the urging of prosecutors, who said talks about a possible deal in the case have gone nowhere.

"No meaningful plea negotiations have occurred over the past few months," Kelly stated in documents filed last week.

Sticking to a theme: In another case of a husband charged with trying to kill his longtime wife, a judge is saying he will rule Tuesday on whether prominent McHenry County businessman Billy J. Cox should receive another trial on charges of attempted murder and aggravated domestic battery.

A jury convicted Cox, 67, of those charges in April, but his attorneys are seeking another trial on claims county prosecutors did not disclose evidence helpful to the defense, and that the case's judge improperly barred a key defense witness.

Cox, a noted scientist and founder of Richmond-based Exacto Inc., was accused of beating his wife nearly unconscious with a blunt object at their Bull Valley estate, and then locking her in a garage alongside two running vehicles, hoping she would die of carbon monoxide poising.

His defense claimed Cox's wife, Carolyn Cox, was hurt by a fall from a ladder in the garage, then was duped into blaming her husband for her injuries.

If his bid for a new trial is denied, he will face up to 60 years in prison when his sentencing hearing begins Friday.