McHenry County child killer won't go free yet
A McHenry County man convicted of raping and killing a 3-year-old girl will remain in state custody for the time being.
Under a December 2009 ruling, Gary Welsh, 70, could be released from a state institution for the first time since September 1962. He was convicted of raping a girl he was baby-sitting in Harvard and suffocating the girl with a pillow.
That December ruling ordered the Department of Human Services to prepare a report outlining where Welsh would live, how he would be supervised, what treatment he would receive and how the safety of the community would be ensured.
McHenry County Judge Sharon Prather was set to rule Thursday on whether that plan was adequate to grant Welsh conditional release.
In Prather's view, it was not.
"This court cannot enter a court order until the department completes a plan," Prather said.
The Department of Humans Services did prepare a plan for Welsh's release, but the man who helped prepare the report admitted on the witness stand Thursday that the report was not complete and that Welsh was not told to take a sex offender assessment, something Prather said Welsh would have to consent to before being released.
Jerry Isikoff of DHS said it was past practice to initially prepare a tentative plan and then complete a comprehensive plan once a court order for conditional release has been entered.
Prather ordered DHS to complete the plan in two weeks, provide a signed lease from the apartment complex where Welsh will live and conduct a sex offender assessment on him.
The judge also took exception to Isikoff's testimony that he did not yet know Welsh or his history well enough to determine how best to treat him and protect the community. Welsh has been in DHS custody since early 2008, when prosecutors had him declared a sexually violent person.
"I frankly find it incredible that a witness from the DHS comes in the courtroom and testifies that he doesn't know anything about Mr. Welsh," Prather said.
Welsh's next court date is April 3.