First responders testify about scene after Beach Park baseball bat killings

Armando Trejo was calm while locked in handcuffs moments after a Lake County sheriff's deputy discovered two people in the house had been fatally beaten with an aluminum baseball bat.

Former Deputy Jason Plichta testified Trejo sat hunched over in a room in the Beach Park house where he lived and showed no emotion.

"At one point, he asked why, but that's all he said," Plichta testified Wednesday during Trejo's murder trial in Lake County court, where he faces multiple counts of first-degree murder and aggravated battery.

Plichta said Trejo later asked if he could say something to police but was told to remain quiet until he was taken to the sheriff's office in Waukegan.

Police and rescue officers who first viewed the bodies of Lailani Uy Trejo, 43, and her 14-year-old son, Patrick K. Cruz Uy, described the scene for the jury.

Plichta testified he encountered Armando Trejo at the end of the driveway on the 10200 block of West Bairstow Avenue about 3 a.m. Nov. 29, 2015. Armando Trejo initially tried to send police away by saying a 2-year-old child called authorities by mistake, but his mother came outside with blood on her nightgown, Plichta said.

"I turned to the subject and asked what happened," Plichta said. "He told me he got into a fight with his wife."

They went inside, and Plichta testified he asked where Lailani Uy Trejo was. Armando Trejo pointed to a backroom, where Plichta found a baseball bat with blood on it leaning against a wall. Lailani Uy Trejo was unresponsive on the floor in a pool of blood.

Plichta said he also noticed blood on the walls and found a second unresponsive victim, later identified as Patrick K. Cruz Uy.

Plichta was dispatched to the house after Lailani Uy Trejo called 9-1-1 to say she was beaten and bleeding. During the call, authorities said, Armando Trejo, 50, repeatedly hit her with the bat, then the line went silent.

Defense attorneys argue Armando Trejo should face lesser charges of second-degree murder because he reacted with "sudden and intense passion" after seeing Lailani Uy Trejo sexually abusing her son.

Prosecutors have said the attack was sparked because Lailani Uy Trejo discovered her husband's infidelity and was leaving him.

First-degree murder in Illinois is defined as killing another without lawful justification, officials said. For second-degree murder, defense attorneys must prove Trejo was reacting after receiving serious provocation.

Trejo will be sentenced to prison for life if he's found guilty of first-degree murder. He would face four to 20 years in prison if found guilty of second-degree murder, authorities said.

Trejo has been held in the Lake County jail on $5 million bail since his arrest.