New Lenox Township murder trial: Man defending himself spars with mother

JOLIET – Jason Gonzalez’s mother called him a murderer at least four times before her testimony concluded Wednesday.

“Did you ever tell me when I was living with you [in Morris] that you never saw the real me?” Jason Gonzalez, who is acting as his own attorney, asked his mother Kim Gonzalez, who was spending her third day on the witness stand.

“After you murdered Lance, I’m sure I did. I knew you had anger issues occasionally, but I never saw this coming,” she answered.

Jason Gonzalez’s uncle, Lance Goebel, was found shot to death Sept. 17, 2009 in his New Lenox Township home. Prosecutors say Gonzalez was evicted by his uncle two months earlier after becoming inappropriately fixated on children in the family.

Kim Gonzalez had testified Tuesday she found an electronic personal organizer a few months after her son's arrest that contained two videos he had secretly recorded while sitting next to a girl at Goebel's house.

Jason Gonzalez then told Judge Edward Burmila that making jurors aware of his homosexuality through his mother’s testimony would show he was not worried the victim might be angry with him about the recordings.

On Wednesday, Gonzalez asked his mother about the state of his uncle's marriage and told the judge, while the jury was out of the courtroom, he was doing so to show "that somebody else could've been responsible for the murder."

“You’re not accepting responsibility for what you’ve done,” Kim Gonzalez said.

“[You’re] pretty mad, aren’t you?” her son asked.

"I'm angry. I lost my brother and my son on the same day," she continued.

Jason Gonzalez then asked his mother about a letter she’d written him in jail where she referred to expectations of beatings and rapes in prison.

“I told you I was going to send you a book about surviving in prison because I didn’t think you were mentally prepared for it. I think you’re a little nuts,” Kim Gonzalez said.

Burmila instructed jurors that they will not decide a sentence if Gonzalez is convicted and his mother’s expectations do not have any weight in the case.

“There’s no attorney I know of who would seek to admit this [letter]. It repeats a number of beliefs your mother has,” Burmila told Gonzalez. “You’ve chosen, unwisely in my opinion, to represent yourself. You’ve poked and prodded your mother for three days now to say a number of things in front of the jury which [could be objectionable].”

“If a lawyer did this, I would stop the trial and have him removed from the case,” the judge finished.

Before testimony finished Wednesday, former crime lab analyst Peter Striupaitis testified three bullets recovered from Goebel's body were fired from a handgun that fired 15 bullets provided to Will County Sheriff's police. The bullets were provided to police by a friend of Kim Gonzalez's.

Jason Gonzalez allegedly used his Smith and Wesson handgun at the friend’s target range before Goebel’s slaying.

Burmila announced one juror had a death in the family before closing proceedings for the day. The trial will resume Friday.