Prosecutors File Motion to Bar Crime Scene Technician from Vaughn Murder Trial

 Posted on September 02, 2012 in Criminal Defense

Prosecutors feel that Illinois State Police crime scene technician Robert Deel has done enough damage to high-profile murder cases for one month.

Just two weeks after Deel testified under oath in the Drew Peterson murder trial that he believes Peterson's third wife Kathleen Savio actually died in an accident, prosecutors took steps to minimize Deel's role in the Christopher Vaughn murder trial, which was discussed in a recent blog post.

Will County Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Fitzgerald requested Judge Daniel Rozak "prohibit the defense from questioning Robert Deel about a letter he believes the state police received from the Will County State's Attorney's Office requesting that Robert Deel no longer perform crime scene investigation in Will County cases," according to the motion filed Wednesday.

Vaughn, 37, allegedly gunned down his wife and three young children as they sat helpless in the family's Ford Expedition. Vaughn explained to the police that it was actually his wife, Kimberly Vaughn, 34, who killed their children, then shot him in the wrist and leg before he fled for his life.

Kimberly turned the gun on herself after he got away and committed suicide, according to Vaughn's version of the killings. Prosecutors contend that Vaughn inflicted the minor gunshot wounds to himself to bolster his cover story. But according to a March article in the Chicago Tribune, Deel was convinced that Vaughn was telling the truth.

"I wasn&t being listened to by them," Deel said in a Chicago Tribune story. "In fact, every time that I offered up something that was contrary to what they said, they had some reason why I didn&t know what I was talking about, and basically it all fell back on that Christopher Vaughn is a criminal mastermind and he knows all about crime scenes and that he would be able to fool me into thinking that something else happened."

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