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Champaign man pleads guilty in '85 murder case

Posted January 18, 2018 6:00 am

The Associated Press

WHEATON, Ill. (AP) - A central Illinois man charged in the 1985 death of a teenage girl who left her suburban Chicago home to buy candy has pleaded guilty to murder charges.

Michael R. Jones on Thursday admitted he assaulted and killed 15-year-old Kristy Wesselman near her home near Glen Ellyn. Her body was found in a field she used as a shortcut to a grocery store.

DuPage County Circuit Judge George Bakalis will formally enter the agreed upon sentence of 80 years Jan. 23, the day Jones' jury trial was scheduled to begin.

The murder case went cold years ago. The 64-year-old Jones was charged in 2015 after being linked to the crime through a DNA sample provided after he pleaded guilty to aggravated domestic battery in Champaign County.

Jones worked as a maintenance man for a large apartment complex.

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