Warrenville cops say murder suspect confessed to his mother

Days after 17-year-old Sade Glover was gunned down in an alley behind her mother’s Warrenville home six years ago, the man police were questioning about the murder wanted to see his mom.

When Joshua Matthews got a 20-minute meeting with his mother at the Warrenville police station, investigators were listening.

On Friday, a Warrenville detective told a DuPage County jury that police heard Matthews trying to explain what happened during the Oct. 9, 2004, shooting.

“He said he didn’t mean to do it,” Detective Sgt. Tony Dutkovich testified. He said the Maywood man claimed his gun “just went off” and everything “happened very fast.”

Matthews, now 25, is charged with fatally shooting Glover after confronting the college student about a complaint she filed against him weeks earlier for allegedly punching her in the face. They were childhood acquaintances.

During his trial this week, prosecutors presented evidence that Matthews confessed twice — once to police, and once to his mother. Both times Matthews claimed the slaying was an accident.

According to Dutkovich, Matthews told his mother he was “very angry” when the shooting occurred around 10:30 p.m. Glover was shot five times as she exited a car.

Matthews, who is acting as his own attorney, only asked Dutkovich one question during cross-examination: he wanted to know if Dutkovich was the lead investigator working on the case. Dutkovich said he wasn’t.

When his videotaped confession was shown to the jury on Thursday, Matthews tried to establish that authorities conspired to trick him into admitting to the murder. He has said he couldn’t have murdered Glover because he spent the night of her death going to a dice game, selling drugs and drinking alcohol with friends.

At the time the confession was recorded, Matthews, then 19, refused to sign a waiver of his rights, but said on camera he was speaking voluntarily.

Dutkovich testified that when Matthews asked his mother if she would visit him in jail, she said “no.” She told her son the meeting was probably the last time they would see each other, according to Dutkovich.

The trial will resume Tuesday.