White found innocent in roommate's murder

A Lake County jury deliberated for a little more than six hours Thursday before finding Delia White not guilty of the murder of Audelia Bogard on Nov. 11, 2005 during an argument in their Mundelein apartment.

White had taken the witness stand earlier in the day and testified the videotaped confession the jurors had seen was simply a story she made up because her son convinced her it would set her free.

White began to cry after the verdict was announced, hugged her attorney and said, "I cannot believe it is all over."

Prosecutors said White, 57, killed Bogard, 43, after she ordered White to move out of the apartment they shared with White's son, Steven Arthurs.

The women also argued the day before the killing over use of Bogard's Jeep. She refused to allow White to drive it downstate to visit her granddaughter, Assistant State's Attorney Marykay Foy said.

"The defendant told police she was so desperate to see her granddaughter that if the devil had walked through the door she would have made a deal," Foy said. "Well, the devil was in that apartment on Nov. 11, 2005."

Bogard suffered massive injuries to the back of her head when she was struck repeatedly with some solid object.

Because jewelry was strewn about the room where Bogard was found, police surmised the victim was beaten to death with her jewelry box that Arthurs said was missing from the room.

In her confession on the second day of questioning, White told police she could not remember what she used to bludgeon Bogard.

However, she said she believed she put the object in a plastic garbage bag, along with her blood-soaked clothing, and threw it into Lake Michigan.

White disavowed the confession on the witness stand. She claimed Arthurs convinced her to tell police she had killed Bogard because of what he believed was mounting evidence against her.

She said Arthurs convinced her, during a short conversation they had while both were being questioned by police, that an admission would result in more favorable treatment by authorities.

"I said 'Steve, what should I do," White testified. "He said 'I think you are just going to have to tell them you did it and save yourself.'"

Arthurs recited a far different account of that conversation during his testimony earlier in the trial.

He said his mother told him soon after their meeting began she had killed Bogard and was willing to make that statement to police.

She did that, although Thursday claimed she made up the story because she no longer wanted to be questioned by police.

Defense attorney Christopher Lombardo urged the jury to consider the several hours of videotape they saw of White being questioned, as well as her videotaped confession.

He claimed White had been psychologically worn down by hours of isolation punctuated by intense inquiry and being told she was lying.

"She was their prisoner and that is how they treated her," Lombardo said. "But now you have seen a portion of what a person goes through in that situation."

Lombardo said police did not investigate enough other possible suspects, including a Hispanic man White claimed had visited Bogard the day of the murder.

But Assistant State's Attorney Dan Kleinhubert told the jurors the Hispanic man was a figment of White's imagination designed to draw suspicion away from herself.

"The only logical conclusion you can make is that Delia White committed this murder," Kleinhubert said. "Nothing else explains her actions, nothing else explains her statements."