JOLIET – It was conference time Tuesday in the case of an Ottawa man accused of molesting a Crest Hill boy and then trying to have the victim and investigators killed.
Christian L. Shepherd, 37, had a status hearing scheduled before Judge Daniel Kennedy, but defense attorney Chuck Bretz and Will County Assistant State’s Attorney Christine Vukmir asked to meet with the judge for a “402 conference.”
Named for Supreme Court Rule 402, the judge learns more about “the facts and nature of the case” and the defendant at such a conference than he ordinarily would before a trial. After the lawyers present the facts, the judge discusses a potential sentence if the defendant were to plead guilty. The defendant isn’t present at the conference, but his attorney can go over it with him afterward.
“But now if you don’t like my recommendation, you can’t come back and say, ‘I want to substitute you out for a new judge’ because of that [information],” Kennedy warned Shepherd.
Shepherd agreed and waited in the jury box for 10 minutes while the conference was held in Kennedy's chambers. When the lawyers returned, the case was scheduled for another pretrial hearing later this month and Shepherd and Bretz conversed for about 10 more minutes.
Between 2004 and 2008, Shepherd allegedly sexually abused a boy he was baby-sitting in Crest Hill. The victim reported the abuse to police two years later. Shepherd, a school bus driver, also was linked to sexual abuse cases in Bolingbrook and Lockport before being arrested in April 2010.
Shepherd allegedly admitted to sexually abusing the boy to Crest Hill officers Renee Maly and Jason Opiola. Two weeks after his arrest, he offered then-Will County Jail inmate Franklin Bryant more than $900 to kill the boy, his mother, Maly and Opiola, according to authorities.
Shepherd gave Bryant a map to [the victim’s] house and something to ‘read as you are standing over’ him,’” according to court filings. Bryant was wearing a wire and Shepherd was charged with solicitation of murder.
Two months later, Shepherd offered jail inmate Daniel Robinson his 2001 Ford Taurus and advances on his credit cards to kill the boy, his mother, the detectives and Bryant, prosecutors wrote. He was charged with another count of solicitation of murder.