A Springfield man was sentenced to prison time in Adams County Court yesterday on one of many criminal felonies he faces in the county.
WGEM reports that 36 year old Bradley S. Yohn was sentenced to 7 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for possession of contraband in a penal institution by Chief Judge of the 8th Judicial Circuit J. Frank McCartney. Yohn was found to be in possession of two thumb drives in his cell at the Adams County Jail in November of last year. A jury found Yohn guilty on the single count back in April. Yohn will serve the sentence with day-for-day credit with credit for 205 days served.
Testimony in the case said that Yohn had hidden two thumb drives’ worth of evidence from his case for a November 2021 carjacking and sexual assault case in which he is currently representing himself. Correctional officers found the drives after a tip from another inmate reported that Yohn had the drives in his cell.
Lead trial attorney Josh Jones said during the brief trial that inmates are allowed to have paper copies of evidence in their cell.
Yohn now awaits trial on two felony counts of home invasion, one count of aggravated kidnapping, one count of aggravated vehicular hijacking, one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault and one count of residential burglary after he allegedly used force or threat of force to take a vehicle and kidnap Christine “Tina” Schmitt on Nov. 9, 2021. He then reportedly used force to enter the woman’s home and was alleged to have been carrying a knife.
After the sentencing, Judge Roger Thomson took the bench for a motion hearing stemming from the 2021 case. According to the Quincy Herald Whig, the motion was about a request for funds so Yohn could hire a private investigator to look into what Yohn has called “evidence tampering.”
Judge Thomson said that Yohn’s request didn’t meet enough burden of proof and was denied. The next motion hearing will be June 14th and the final pretrial hearing will be June 30th. A tentative trial date on the 2021 case has been set for July 10th. According to the Herald-Whig, it was unclear if Yohn would be transferred into IDOC custody prior to the start of the second trial.