No bond order stands for suspect in double murder

Jerry Hobbs III will not be going anywhere anytime soon.

A Lake County judge on Tuesday refused to change the order that has kept Hobbs, 36, in jail without bond since his 2005 arrest for the murders of his daughter and another girl.

Circuit Judge Fred Foreman said he was "not persuaded at all" that DNA collected from the body and clothing of Laura Hobbs was conclusive evidence that her father did not commit the crimes.

Laura, 8, and her friend, Krystal Tobias, 9, were both stabbed multiple times in a Zion park on May 9, 2005.

Three days later, police announced that Laura's father had confessed to being the killer.

Last month, the Lake County public defender's office said a DNA profile taken from sperm found on Laura's body and clothing did not match her father's.

Assistant Public Defender Keith Grant argued that the discovery should allow Hobbs to be released from custody as he awaits trial.

"In order to hold a person without bond, the court must find the proof of guilt great and the presumption of guilt evident," Grant said. "This evidence reduces the presumption of guilt and the proof is no longer great."

But Assistant State's Attorney Michael Mermel said the DNA, which has been known to the defense since August 2007, changed nothing about the case.

Mermel said the sperm samples found in the swabs taken from Laura Hobbs' body and clothing were too small to have been the result of sexual activity.

Sperm is produced in quantities of hundreds of thousands or millions, Mermel said, and there was only one or two sperm found in each of the samples taken from Laura Hobbs.

It was much more likely, Mermel said, that the girl picked up the sperm by coming into contact with it in a casual way, such as touching something the sperm had been deposited on.

Mermel said the DNA profile brought forward by the defense matches the profile prosecutors developed from material taken from the girl's finger.

It was compared to the DNA of known felons in both state and federal databases in 2006, Mermel said, and there were no matches.

Foreman ordered that prosecutors take both their DNA profile and the one defense attorneys have and compare them to the databases again.

He ordered a report on the comparison to be delivered Dec. 30.

Hobbs faces the death penalty if convicted of the murders. A trial has been set for April 30.