Trial begins in death of rural Illinois man

HAVANA, Ill. — The trial has started for an Illinois man accused of killing a rural Mason County man in 2009.

The Pekin Daily Times reports prosecutors and defense attorneys started proceedings Monday in the trial of Randy Deskin. Deskin is charged with the death of 27-year-old Dustin Englebrecht. Deskin was an inmate at Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet when authorities arrested him in Englebrecht’s death.

Englebrecht had been missing for about a week when authorities found his body Sept. 7, 2009, in a shallow grave near his property outside Mason City in central Illinois.

Mason County prosecutors say they will prove Deskin killed and buried Englebrecht.

But defense attorneys say prosecutors don’t have evidence to prove Deskin was the killer and that authorities didn’t fully pursue other suspects.