Son testifies mom confessed to murder

Steven Arthurs was in his second day of being questioned about the death of his fiancee when police told him there was someone else who wanted to talk to him.

It was his mother, Delia White, who herself was being questioned about the murder of Audelia Bogard. White was in an interrogation room just a few steps away from Arthurs.

Bogard, 43, was found beaten to death Nov. 11, 2005, in the Mundelein apartment she shared with Arthurs and White.

Arthurs testified against his mother Thursday during her trial for first-degree murder in Lake County circuit court.

Arthurs said he had received a phone call from Bogard around 9 a.m. asking him to come and get his mother out of the apartment because the women were arguing.

Unable to leave immediately from his job driving a cab, he arrived at the apartment about noon and found White sitting in Bogard's Jeep in the parking lot, Arthurs said.

They went upstairs, found the body, then called the police, who quickly separated them and began questioning them individually.

When he was taken to his mother's interrogation room, it was the first contact Arthurs had had with White since they were taken into custody, Arthurs said. He agreed to meet with her suspecting he knew what she had to say, he said.

"At that point, I was very confused; shocked, angry and hurt," he said. "I wanted some answers and I wanted some closure."

He said he was led to the room where White was and, after police assured them they were not being taped, was left alone with her.

Arthurs said he and his mother sat quietly for a short time until she said "You hate me, don't you?" and broke the silence.

Arthurs said he was trying to assure White he did not hate her when she interrupted him.

"She said, 'I am evil; I took away someone's mother, I took away someone's daughter. I took away your love,' " Arthurs said.

Arthurs said White told him she and Bogard were arguing, Bogard pushed her into some closet doors and White "blacked out."

The next thing White remembered, Arthurs said, was standing over Bogard's lifeless body.

Arthurs said he left the room after about 30 minutes and gave police a handwritten description of their conversation.

Police said White then agreed to give them a videotaped confession that prosecutors say they will show to the jury of eight women and four men later in the trial.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Christopher Lombardo, Arthurs testified that White and Bogard got together often in the month he and Bogard lived in Mundelein before White moved in with them.

It was White -- who had come to live in the apartment just five days before Bogard was killed -- who accompanied Bogard to the hospital for emergency treatment less than 48 hours before her death.

Arthurs said he was not available to accompany his fiancee because he had spent the night on a cocaine binge in Chicago, a habit that frequently caused tension between him and Bogard.

Nonetheless, Arthurs said, he and Bogard were planning to be married in June 2006 and he described their relationship as loving.

He testified he has not spoken to his mother since their meeting at the Mundelein police station on Nov. 12, 2005.