Updated at 4:30 pm Monday, January, 31st.

It took less than an hour for the jury to return a verdict of guilty in the Dustin Finlaw murder trial today in Morgan County Court.

The jury was handed the case just after 11:00 this morning after hearing closing arguments today. After four days of testimony last week, the jury deliberated for 50 minutes before a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder was handed down.

Finlaw was found guilty of murdering 42-year-old Robert L. Utter of Rushville in the early morning hours of May 24^th, 2018 in Meredosia. Utter’s body was found in his own vehicle in the 300 block of Montgomery Street.

According to evidence presented by the prosecution, Finlaw stabbed Utter 13 times with a pairing knife while Utter was sitting in the driver’s seat of his Ford Escape where he had parked in the Naples Boat Club’s parking lot.

During closing arguments, this morning, Assistant State’s Attorney Chad Turner said it was thanks to Utter that Finlaw was ultimately caught, as he was able to drive a couple of hundred yards away from the attack before he lost consciousness, which meant Finlaw was not able to clean up any evidence that he had been in the vehicle.

Morgan County State’s Attorney Gray Noll gave his condolences to the victim’s family, following the verdict. “First and foremost, our hearts go out to the victim’s family. Robert Utter’s loved ones were present in court throughout the trial. This was a difficult process for them. A long four years, which is how long this particular case took to get to a verdict. So first and foremost, condolences to them, and hopefully this provides some sort of closure.

The jury found the defendant guilty of first-degree murder of Robert Utter. It has been set for a sentencing hearing on April 1st of this year. At that point, Judge Davis will be sentencing the defendant. The sentencing range is twenty to sixty years on what he is charged with right now, along with some other charges that will be set for status and are still pending.”

Finlaw still faces two charges of aggravated battery of a peace officer, two counts of obstruction of justice and destroying evidence, and one count of resisting a peace officer. The status hearing on these charges will also be heard on April 1^st following sentencing in the murder case.

When asked by Judge Jack Davis III, Finlaw informed the court he would continue to represent himself in his case and during sentencing.

Jeremy Coumbes assisted with this report.

The National Weather Service in Lincoln has issued a Winter Storm watch beginning tomorrow night.

The watch extends to the entire WLDS-WEAI listening area. The storm is expected to begin tomorrow night with a brief onset of sleet and freezing rain turning to snow.

The National Weather Service is predicting 6-9 inches of snow and approximately a quarter inch of ice with this storm, with blowing and drifting snow set to begin late Wednesday night on into Thursday morning. Blustery winds are expected through the duration of this storm, as well.

Travel is expected to be difficult to impossible beginning tomorrow night.

A Macoupin County man was convicted on four counts last Tuesday in relation to a theft and high speed chase in Carlinville from last year.

33 year old Caleb J. Prose of Girard was found guilty of burglary, aggravated battery of a peace officer, aggravated battery with a motor vehicle, and aggravated fleeing with property damage. The Alton Telegraph reports it took the jury just 40 minutes to find Prose guilty in the case.

According to Macoupin County State’s Attorney Jordan Garrison in court proceedings, Sgt. Larry Rayburn of the Macoupin County Sheriff’s Department was called to University Street in rural Carlinville on Sept. 5 after a property owner noticed tools appeared to have been hidden so they could be picked up later.

Officers determined the tools had been taken from Davis Towing in Carlinville between Sept. 3 and Sept. 5. A motion-activated surveillance camera was placed to observe the location of the hidden tools; and at approximately 1 p.m. Sept. 5, the camera was activated by a dark SUV entering the property. The SUV was later seen being driven by Prose and a high-speed pursuit ensued, ending on Deer Lane about 5 miles north of Carlinville in rural Macoupin County.

According to court testimony, Prose rammed a deputy’s squad car and ran from the scene. Prose was later apprehended on October 18^th near Girard.

Sentencing in this case is set for March 7^th. Prose is awaiting a trial on another Macoupin County case for theft of a motor vehicle. He is due back in court on February 14^th on a motion to suppress evidence that was allegedly illegally seized in that case. The Alton Telegraph further reports that Prose is also awaiting extradition to the State of Georgia on a probation violation.

A Greene County woman went missing in Western Sangamon County on Tuesday. 

39 year old Randa Davidson of Hillview has not been heard from by family members since the afternoon of January 25th. Davidson’s last known whereabouts were on the west side of Springfield Tuesday night. Davidson’s vehicle was found parked and vacant along Bunker Hill Road, about a mile from Wabash Avenue just outside of Springfield. 

Family say that Davidson’s cellphone was found in a ditch by two coyote hunters in Winchester. Davidson has regular contact with her family, and they believe her to be in danger. 

Davidson is believed to have a small dog with her. 

Davidson is a 39 year old white female with a slightly tan complexion. She stands 5’8” tall, weighs approximately 140 pounds, has brown hair and brown eyes. 

If anyone has any further information of her whereabouts, please call the family at 217-491-7025 or 217-831-0142. You may also contact the Greene County Sheriff’s Office at 217-942-6901.

Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch announced yesterday that the Illinois House would be returning to session next week.

In a statement released yesterday, Welch says that with Covid-19 on the decline once again that the session would be conducted in a cautious and vigilant manner. Welch urged his colleagues to take care of the SHIELD testing available to all workers at the Capitol complex.

Session has been scheduled for Tuesday through Thursday next week, with Governor J.B. Pritzker’s State of the State Budget address to be given at the Capitol on Wednesday in person, according to the governor’s own announcement yesterday.

The chamber will have capacity limits and the gallery at the Capitol will be closed to the public for the speech. Guidelines for the media will be released in the coming days.

Morgan County’s unemployment rate appears to have leveled off.

Locally, the unemployment rate from November to December stayed at 3.7%. The steady rate ends 7 straight months of swift decline.

Morgan County is at odds with the state trend, which saw the statewide unemployment rate dip for the 9^th straight month.

Strikingly, Scott County actually saw a rise in unemployment from the previous month to 4.9%, after hovering at or below 4% for several months. Despite that anomaly, the remainder of the area remained at 3.4-3.7% unemployment. Brown County remains the lowest in the area at 2.1%.

In over the year numbers for metro areas, Springfield had the third largest unemployment rate decrease at 3.4% compared to 2020.

While this may mean good news for the state’s economy, it appears recovery from the coronavirus recession in the local economy has somewhat leveled off.

Only nine days remain until the Prairieland United Way’s Price Is United event returns. Executive Director Karen Walker says there is only a limited number of tickets remaining: “Sales are going well. I believe we are down to about 17 tickets left. I certainly encourage anyone if you are still interested in the event to go to our website prairielandunitedway.org and be sure to get one of those tickets before they are all gone.”

The current campaign is currently hovering under 70% of its goal this year. Walker says that employer campaigns have lagged behind this year compared to previous ones: “We’ve had many employee campaigns, which is the bulk of what we receive every year, that have been slow to come in or were unable to participate this year due to mostly I think the remote working, Covid, and of course the economy in general situation. For the most part, we are still plugging away at it. We have until the end of February, so we’ve got just a little [less than] 5 weeks left. We are at about 70% [of our goal], so we are definitely below where we normally are at this point in the campaign. Anyone who’s listening that can help us out, we could use your help. This is not the year to sit back if you are able to help. We definitely need it.”

Walker says that pre-allocation meetings were held with area non-profit organizations last week. She says that applications from non-profits will be due in the middle of next month, with allocations beginning in March.

Income tax filing season is currently underway, but many in the country are still waiting on their 2020 return.

18^th District Congressman Darin LaHood is demanding answers from the IRS. LaHood is asking for the IRS to provide answers about the more than 16 million outstanding returns from last year that are still awaiting processing.

In a statement released yesterday LaHood says that the ongoing customer service failures at the IRS have reached crisis levels causing undue burdens on families and businesses.

In December, LaHood joined 99 House Republicans to request that IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig provide information on how the agency plans to resolve its filing backlog process and provide additional resources for the current filing season.

This week, LaHood led nearly 200 bipartisan members of the House of Representatives to urge the U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to give taxpayers a break on penalties from the IRS because of mail delays.

Treasury Department officials warned on Monday that this year’s tax season could be as bad or worse with delays compared to last year. The IRS has urged many families and businesses to use professional tax services and to file electronically and request direct deposit for refunds whenever possible.

A van reported stolen on Tuesday morning from the Northewestern School District in Palmyra has been found.

Macoupin County Sheriff’s Detectives reported that they located the van yesterday in Nilwood. No further details have been released.

Macoupin County Sheriff Shawn Kahl wished to thank the public for raising awareness about the incident and for their assistance to law enforcement in the case.

The Macoupin County Sheriff’s Office released information this morning about a van stolen from the Northwestern School District in Palmyra over night yesterday.

According to a release on the Office’s Facebook page, a Macoupin County Deputy was advised by the school district yesterday that a white 2009 Chevy transportation van was stolen off of their property at around 2:35AM on Wednesday.

The Macoupin County Sheriff’s Office says if anyone has any information to please call their office at (217) 854-3135, extension 1.