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Closing arguments debate whether Geneva woman was even murdered

The attorney for a Geneva man accused of murdering his wife in 2014 on Monday said prosecutors failed to prove that she died of foul play.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, say there's plenty of evidence that 55-year-old Shadwick R. King strangled his wife and then placed her body along railroad tracks not far from their home.

It's now up to a Kane County judge to decide next month whether Shadwick King is guilty of first-degree murder in the 2014 death of his wife, 32-year-old Kathleen King.

Kathleen King's body was found around 6:38 a.m. July 6, 2014, perpendicular to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks in Geneva. A jury found Shadwick King guilty in 2015, but the Illinois Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 2018 and returned it to Kane County for a new trial.

The bench trial before Judge John Barsanti started last month and wrapped up on Monday.

During closing arguments, defense attorney Kathleen Zellner disputed the authorities' conclusions. They say Shadwick King strangled his wife at their Oak Street home, dressed her, took her 150-pound body through Esping Park, laid it along the Union Pacific railroad tracks with her head hanging over one of the rails, and then propped her smartphone against a rail.

“It is a figment of a prosecutor's imagination,” Zellner said. “A murder never occurred. ... It is time for Mr. King to go home. It is time for him to have the life he deserves.”

But Kane County Assistant State's Attorney Greg Sams reiterated his evidence. That included Shadwick King's testimony that he knew his wife — 16 years younger than him — had been in a romantic texting relationship with a man she met earlier that year at Army Reserves training. The two exchanged 3,499 text messages, about 200 a day, in the three weeks preceding her death.

“On the morning of July 6, the defendant had had enough. He had had enough of Kate's interactions with this other man,” Sams said. “No one here is condoning the relationship that Kathleen had developed with (the other man). But that relationship did not have to end with murder at his (Shadwick King's) hands.”

Sams pointed to what Kathleen King was wearing when found — untied running shorts, one of her socks upside down and a lace-trimmed underwire bra that was pulled up and twisted in a way that any woman would have considered uncomfortable. He said King owned at least nine sports bras.

But Zellner contends Kathleen King was so drunk that she improperly dressed. King had a blood alcohol content of .15 at the time of her death, according to her autopsy.

Zellner said evidence of rail track rust on one of King's hands makes it much more likely King was walking near the rail line, knelt to vomit, put her phone down and collapsed from a sudden heart arrhythmia. She was on the railroad tracks, Zellner said, trying to get noticed by passing trains to get help.

An electrophysiologist testified in June that alcohol use and a recent significant weight loss could have led to an electrolyte imbalance that would cause the arrhythmia.

Sam said hemorrhages in her eyes, tongue, larynx and epiglottis, and bruises under her chin are evidence she was asphyxiated by strangulation. And Sams questioned why King would not have called 911, her sister or her husband for help if she was just out walking and had a medical emergency.

Judge Barsanti intends to announce his decision on Aug. 12.

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