A Springfield man’s court hearing in Adams County ended Wednesday in a flurry of expletives and his removal from the court room.
35 year old Bradley Yohn once again attempted to fire his public defender and push his right to a speedy trial in court on Wednesday. According to Muddy River News, Yohn filed a motion on Monday to have his newest public defender Todd Nelson removed from his case, once again claiming ineffective assistance. Yohn also filed a motion on June 22nd to have his case dismissed because of a violation of his right to a speedy trial. In May, Yohn fired public defender John Citro also citing ineffective assistance of counsel and proceeded pro se. In late June, Yohn accepted counsel once again prior to jury selection.
Judge Roger Thomson is reported to have asked Yohn Wednesday to let Nelson continue in the case, to which Yohn agreed, only moments later to have Yohn object to a motion to continue the case to August 3rd so Nelson could continue review of discovery.
Judge Thomson would go on to silence Yohn several more times before Yohn was escorted from the courtroom by bailiffs while shouting vulgarity at Thomson. Thomson went on to grant the August 3rd continuance for Nelson to continue to review evidence.
Yohn is charged with home invasion, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated vehicular hijacking and aggravated criminal sexual assault with a weapon as a result of incidents that occurred at the home of Christine Schmitt along North Bottom Road in rural Quincy. Schmitt would die from complications of injuries she sustained in the incident a month later. Yohn also faces additional counts in a separate case from October 2021.
In a separate hearing, Yohn’s counterpart, 33 year old Karen Blackledge of Quincy, who pled guilty to to one count of home invasion and one count of aggravated sexual assault on April 1st and was sentenced to 2 consecutive 20-year prison terms in prison is allegedly reconsidering her plea.
According to a separate Muddy River News report, Blackledge’s public defender Babs Brennan says she may be filing a motion to either withdraw or reconsider the guilty plea in the next few days. During her plea hearing, Blackledge admitted to that she illegally entered a home on Quincy’s North Bottom Road on November 9, 2021 and while in the home, used a weapon to to penetrate Schmitt.
Blackledge will be back in court on August 19th.