A swift end to a long, drawn-out case

Wednesday's court hearing that granted freedom to Jerry Hobbs III ended swiftly, unlike the prosecution of the murder of his daughter and her best friend that was a long, drawn out affair.

In all, Hobbs spent more than five years waiting for the vindication that came when prosecutors dropped the charges against him.

Over the course of those years, there were countless court appearances and many delays as the case crawled to a trial date that had been set for Oct. 6.

Hobbs' odyssey through the legal system began when he agreed to go with detectives to be questioned just hours after he discovered the bodies of his daughter, 8-year-old Laura Hobbs, and her friend, 9-year-old Krystal Tobias, in a heavily-wooded area of Zion's Beulah Park in May 2005. The girls had disappeared the day before.

Police say he confessed during the early morning hours of May 10, 2005, after a nearly 24-hour questioning session punctuated by several breaks, including one three-hour period when Hobbs was left alone.

According to police, Hobbs said in the confession he had seen the girls in the park on May 8, 2005, and became angry when Laura would not return home with him.

He struck Laura, police said, then grabbed a knife that Krystal pulled on him and stabbed both girls multiple times.

At a news conference following Hobbs' arrest, prosecutors called the murders of the girls "the most horrific crime" they had ever seen. They said they believed Hobbs killed the girls and were convinced Hobbs brought the knife to the crime scene.

The confession was not videotaped as it happened, because the law requiring taping of the questioning of murder suspects had not yet taken effect, but Hobbs was recorded reading a typed summary of what he had said that was prepared by detectives.

A full examination of the confession was conducted during summer 2006, when a motion to suppress any statements Hobbs made to police was held before Circuit Judge Fred Foreman.

During three days of testimony, detectives from the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force testified about the circumstances that led to the confession and Hobbs' conduct throughout the questioning.

Several "red flags" were raised during the sessions, detectives said, that led them to grow more suspicious of Hobbs as the questioning continued.

Among them was Hobbs' graphic and precise description of the wounds the girls suffered, despite his contention he never was closer to the bodies than 20 feet.

Hobbs also peaked detectives' interest, according to the testimony, by volunteering information about his criminal background. It included a stint in a Texas prison for attacking a group of people with a chain saw.

The crying Hobbs did in front of the detectives did not seem sincere, according to the testimony, and he was deceptive in his body language as they spoke to him.

When directly accused of killing the girls, the detectives said, Hobbs' responses became more combative and he frequently said he did not kill "them girls" rather than referring to his own daughter and her best friend by name.

Late in the night of May 9, Hobbs also agreed to take a voice-stress analysis test, a form of polygraph examination that like the polygraph is not admissible in court.

A detective testified Hobbs' responses to his questions about the murders were deceptive, and it was not long after Hobbs was given that information that he confessed.

Later on the day of May 10, detectives testified Hobbs volunteered to return to Beulah Park to show them where he had thrown the knife he used in the killings. A knife was never recovered.

Although his attorneys had claimed in previous court hearings that Hobbs was beaten and in other ways coerced into making the confession, they presented no evidence to support that claim during the hearing and Hobbs did not testify in his own defense.

However, Zion police Sgt. Terry Richards, who was in charge of placing Hobbs into custody after he confessed, testified at the hearing that Hobbs looked "highly stressed" when he was returned to the lockup.

Hobbs also made a statement professing his innocence, Richards testified.

"They told me to lie," Richards said Hobbs told him. "So I lied to them."

Foreman ruled the confession had been legally obtained and Hobbs continued to be held without bond.

In November 2008, Hobbs' defense attorneys claimed testing of evidence in the case by their experts had revealed small semen samples from Laura Hobbs' body and the fabric of some of her clothing.

They moved to have Hobbs released on bond based on the discovery, but prosecutors argued the samples found had already been known to the defense for about a year and the samples were too small to be of any significance.

Prosecutors also said the autopsy of both girls had shown no sign of sexual assault before their murders.

Assistant State's Attorney Michael Mermel said the samples were too small to have been a result of sexual activity, and it was more likely the girl had come into contact with them in a casual way, such as touching something on which the sperm had been deposited.

The case remained on track for a trial date this October, and Foreman had set a date for attorneys to submit questions they wanted included on a form prospective jurors would be required to fill out, when the ultimate break in the case came.

On June 25, prosecutors submitted the numeric signature of the DNA profile that had been developed by the defense expert for comparison against the FBI's national database of DNA samples.

The actual DNA sample could not be entered into the database because the defense expert's lab had not been certified under the FBI's standards for DNA testing.

The sample was matched to the DNA of a man in police custody in another state, prosecutors said, who is now the focus of a renewed investigation of the case. No charges have been filed.