Judge denies Elk Grove man new trial in mother’s death
Convicted in December of murdering his mother, Jonathan Wood wasn’t happy with his verdict or his lawyer, and on Thursday he sought, unsuccessfully, a second chance.
At a hearing before Cook County Judge Bridget Hughes, Wood cited ineffective counsel and requested permission to represent himself pro se, without benefit of his lawyer, recently retired Cook County Assistant Public Defender Jim Mullenix, who has represented Wood since his arrest hours after Marilyn Wood’s body was discovered on Oct. 31, 2008.
Hughes found the 43-year-old Elk Grove Village man guilty of murdering Marilyn Wood, who was found beaten, bound, gagged and buried beneath a rolled carpet and other items in a basement storage room of her Elk Grove Village home.
“I do not think Mr. Mullenix was ineffective in any way,” Hughes said Thursday, denying Wood’s motions citing the “overwhelming evidence” of his guilt.
“I think you’re unhappy with my decision, and you’re trying to get me to change my mind,” she said, adding that she did not find Wood’s trial statements credible.
She set his sentencing for April 23.
“I believe he was dishonest and some of his statements were self-serving,” Hughes said.
Against Mullenix’s advice, Wood took the witness stand during the two-day bench trial to deny beating his mother. He claimed she injured herself falling down the stairs and that he subsequently “restrained” her because he feared she would report him for violating an order of protection.
“I never did anything that could have killed her,” said Wood insisting his mother “wouldn’t have died from tying her up.”
He told Hughes he wanted Mullenix to argue his was a case of involuntary manslaughter, “an accidental death caused by a negligent or reckless act,” but that Mullenix refused and insisted on pursuing a mental health defense.
Wood had been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia four times between 1997 and 2008, said Mullenix. However, psychiatrists found him sane at the time of the crime, which prohibited an insanity defense, said Mullenix, a 25-year veteran of the public defender’s elite homicide task force.
“I told him that (involuntary manslaughter) wouldn’t be a workable defense because we had no proof beyond his testimony,” said Mullenix who testified that he did not believe he could get an expert to say Marilyn Wood died because of a fall.
Retired Cook County Medical Examiner J. Lawrence Cogan testified at trial that Marilyn Wood died from multiple injuries resulting from an assault, and suffocation resulting from a paper towel gag he recovered from her mouth.
Mullenix said he tried to convince Wood not to testify because no physical evidence linked him to the crime. Wood testified anyway, placing himself at the scene and admitting to tying his mother up and leaving her in the storage room.
First-degree murder charges were appropriate even if Wood believes they weren’t, insisted Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Steve Rosenblum. Wood
admitted tying and gagging the victim, intentional acts that led to her death and warranted the guilty finding, Rosenblum said.