The criminal trial of Bradley Yohn of Springfield in Adams County Court addressed a series of motions yesterday morning.
Yohn filed a number of motions last week. The hearing was supposed to end with jury selection yesterday in front of Judge Roger Thomson.
The 35 year old Yohn is defending himself against charges of home invasion, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated vehicular hijacking and aggravated criminal sexual assault with a weapon — all Class X felonies — in Adams County filed in November 2021. The crimes reportedly were committed Nov. 9 at the home of Christine “Tina” Schmitt, who died on Dec. 12.
The first motion addressed was Yohn’s request to have the case dismissed on the grounds that Yohn says his right to due process with discovery had been violated and that corrections officers at the Adams County Jail had been physical with him in nature. Yohn listed a number of items he believed was missing in the discovery including statements from potential witnesses, search warrants, a knife, a navy blue blouse, a truck reportedly used during the incident, footage from a surveillance camera at Wal-Mart, phone transactions, as well as a recording of a co-defendant Karen Blackledge.
After further discussion, the motion was denied. According to Muddy River News, Yohn also made motions of memoranda for state’s witnesses, motion for standby counsel, a motion for the disclosure of the list of the state’s rebuttal witnesses, and multiple motions to suppress evidence and/or testimony. Judge Thomson denied most of them.
After the motions were addressed, Thomson then had a pre-trial meeting with Yohn and the prosecuting attorneys, Josh Jones and Laura Keck from the Adams County State’s Attorney’s office. The courtroom was cleared, and Thomson laid out his rules and how he wanted the trial to proceed.
Right before potential jurors were set to be brought in for voir dire, Yohn said he was unable to proceed and asked for a continuance in the case. Thomson denied the motion and explained that Yohn could have an attorney appointed to him to continue in the case. Yohn then took the offer for public appointed counsel but, according to Muddy River News, said he wished to continue representing himself in the case and would likely fire the court-appointed counsel later and proceed with the trial.
A status in the case has been set for July 6th.