Elk Grove man found guilty of his mother’s death

Jonathan Wood’s testimony Friday during his trial for the murder of his 70-year-old mother left a Cook County prosecutor speechless.

Testifying against the advice of his attorney, Wood — who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia — denied beating and gagging Marilyn Wood, binding her hands and leaving her buried beneath a rolled carpet and other items in a basement storage room of her Elk Grove Village home on Oct. 30, 2008. Wood, 42, said he did not kill his mother, only that he “restrained” her because he feared she’d report him for violating an order of protection she took out against him the previous month.

A short time later, Cook County Judge Bridget Hughes rejected that explanation and handed down a a guilty verdict.

Members of the victim’s family said they were devastated.

“We have double grief,” said David Larsen, Marilyn’s Wood’s younger brother, his voice choked and his eyes red. “One that Marilyn is no longer with us, and two that Jonathan was convicted of the crime.”

Hughes rejected Cook County Assistant Public Defender Jim Mullenix’s request for a finding of guilty but mentally ill, saying that Wood’s testimony, the concealment of his mother’s body and his attempt to flee police in a high-speed chase ending at a Glencoe park made his motive clear.

“I’m at a loss for words,” said Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Steve Rosenblum, who scoffed at Wood’s claims that Marilyn injured herself falling down the stairs causing a bloody nose and cut lip to which he applied paper towels.

Wood said he restrained his mother the only way he knew how, then “lifted her up and put her comfortably on the couch,” where police found her only after Marilyn’s anxious co-workers at Schaumburg’s Healthcare Financial Resources called for a second day in a row requesting a well-being check.

Retired Cook County Medical Examiner J. Lawrence Cogan testified Marilyn Wood suffered serious head injuries, a broken arm and other trauma, and would have been unable to breath as a result of a gag in her mouth. The injuries likely occurred before death, which could have taken up to several hours, Cogan said.

“Jonathan Wood tortured Marilyn Wood, and those words aren’t spoken lightly,” said Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Andre. “It was not an instant death.”

But Marilyn Wood was a fighter, said Andre, referring to what appeared to be her attempts to free herself from the cord. “She wasn’t going to give up without a fight,” he said, “and that’s the stuff Marilyn was made of.”

Wood, who denies suffering from schizophrenia but says he has heard angel voices from the time he was a child, testified that his mother kicked him out of the house because the paperwork from his home-based business selling advertising on the back of grocery tapes was cluttering the house. He said she allowed him to return on Oct. 27 because he was running out of money. He claims he didn’t take his mother to the hospital because he feared being sent to Cook County Jail where he said inmates threatened him with razor blades

“I thought she was safe in the house resting and relaxing,” said Wood, who claimed he sent a fax to his mother’s employer claiming she was out of town so that her absence wouldn’t cost her job.

“What you did was leave your mother there for two days, tied up because you didn’t want to go to jail,” said Rosenblum, pointing out that Wood never once asked Marilyn if she needed food or water.

Mullenix argued that his client’s auditory hallucinations, paranoid behavior, disorganized thought and multiple mental illness diagnoses made guilty but mentally ill the appropriate finding.

“In his delusional, bizarre world, all he did was restrain his mother. In his mind, he never intended her death,” Mullenix said.

“I had no idea she could die from being tied up. They’re charging me with first-degree murder and all I did was unlawfully restrain her,” Wood said.

Wood’s sentencing is set for Dec. 23.