Defense in 1982 murder wants charges dropped because of delay

Defense attorneys for a man accused of a 1982 murder argued Tuesday the case should be dismissed because of the “extraordinary pre-indictment delay of 28 years.”

Robert Bostic, 70, was charged with the June 25, 1982 shooting death of Carlton Richmond earlier this year after police said crucial witnesses stopped obstructing the investigation.

In the interim, attorney Michael Salvi argued, crucial evidence and records have been lost and several witnesses have died.

Richmond, 31, was shot to death inside a Round Lake Beach garage used as a clubhouse for members of the Wheelmen motorcycle club.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Salvi said, four people identified a man who arrived at the garage with Richmond as the killer. One is dead, another is resisting cooperating with police and two say they simply can’t remember what happened because of the years that went by, Salvi added.

Another person who saw a suspect other than Bostic with Richmond at a bar before their arrival at the garage is also dead, Salvi said, and a woman who told police that man made an incriminating statement cannot be located.

In addition, key physical evidence has been lost by police, and fingerprints and blood collected at the scene was never tested.

Salvi said police were not diligent enough in pursuing Richmond’s killer, and the events he cited in his motion to dismiss the case took place because of that lack of diligence.

“After 28 years and all this lost evidence, how can he (Bostic) defend himself,” Salvi asked Associate Judge George Bridges. “It is impossible for him to get a fair trial under these circumstances.”

Round Lake Beach detective Gary Lunn testified he began re-examining the case in 2006 after the investigation had been suspended and reopened several times over the years.

Lunn said he interviewed more than a dozen witnesses in the case in 2010 and went to prosecutors for charges only after several of those witnesses changed their stories.

Assistant State’s Attorney Ken Larue said it was only when some of those witnesses identified Bostic as the shooter that the charges could be filed.

“The case had been reopened periodically to see if the statements changed, and until recently they did not,” Larue said. “We did not prosecute (before this year) because we could not prosecute.”

Bridges said he would rule on the defense motion July 19.

Bostic, who is held on $1.5 million bond, is scheduled to go to trial July 25.