Seven people in the La Salle County Jail are facing murder charges.

Has the county ever had that many pending murder cases at once?

“Within a span of 20 months, we’ve had seven people charged with murder,” said Joe Navarro, La Salle County state’s attorney since 2022 as well as from 1988-96. “That’s definitely unprecedented.”

Within a span of 20 months, we’ve had seven people charged with murder. That’s definitely unprecedented.

—  Joe Navarro, La Salle County state's attorney

Shaw Media contacted past and present La Salle County prosecutors, including some who had served as far back as 1980. None could remember any comparable surge in murder cases. Seven murders reported throughout a four-year term might have been plausible – but never within a 20-month span.

Brian Towne spent 25 years in the prosecutor’s office in Ottawa, with 15 years spent as an assistant and 10 years spent as state’s attorney. The most murders he said he remembered pending at once was three.

That was in 2007, when Towne was busy with James Alvarado and Randall Jennings after an elderly couple were fatally bludgeoned in Seneca. Keith Mackowiak was charged with their murders. All three remain in prison.

“I remember hoping that wasn’t a change for the worse,” Towne said. “I was hoping we weren’t headed towards an uptick or a total that would rival the Collar Counties. That was a unique challenge – we had our hands full with three, so hats off to the current administration for dealing with seven.”

The county reached its current record in July when Tyler Skerett was arrested after a manhunt began Easter Sunday after shots were fired into a vehicle in Streator, striking two men and killing a teen.

Prosecutors expressed concern over the mounting level of violence and bloodshed over the past two years.

The trend appears to have begun in May 2023 when Malcolm Whitfield fired at three people, injuring two and fatally striking Shaquita Kelly. Jurors rejected Whitfield’s self-defense claim and convicted him of murder. His sentencing is set for Oct. 3.

Trial dates are pending for Nicolaus Phillips and Chastity Furar, both of whom were charged with murder following the 2023 fatal shooting of Eric Clements in Ottawa.

Logan Petre awaits an intermittent bench trial in connection with the strangulation death of his father, Leo Petre, on Father’s Day weekend in Marseilles.

Three new cases have been filed in 2025: On March 4, Joshua Casey has been considered a suspect in the strangulation death of Jessica Balma. Police still were looking for Skerett when two people were shot in rural Sheridan, leading to the arrest of Ronald Martin.

What’s going on? Navarro and other law enforcement chiefs express three broad concerns.

Guns and drugs

Petre and Casey are charged with murder by strangulation, but five other individuals are charged with murder by firearm. Of those five, only Furar was lawfully permitted to own a gun. The other suspects are prohibited from possessing or owning a firearm.

Navarro called for lawmakers to revisit the laws regarding felony possession of a weapon by a felon and to pass more stringent penalties, both to deter felons from acquiring guns and to incarcerate those who would misuse them.

“Yes, I’m pro-Second Amendment,” Navarro said. “But I think, as I said before, the legislature needs to pass the laws that make unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon more than just a Class 4 felony. It’s ridiculous.”

Another common thread among the pending cases is drugs. Although Navarro is barred by Illinois Supreme Court rules from discussing pending cases in detail, he said that the purchase or exchange of drugs was a flashpoint or at least a contributing factor in most of the pending cases.

“It’s the common theme,” Navarro said. “If drugs weren’t present at the scene, I believe, based on what we know of the cases, the shootings were motivated by drug deals.”

The Tri-County Drug Enforcement Narcotics Team said that a growing prevalence of firearms in drug transactions.

“It does not come as a surprise to our unit,” Trident said in a statement. “Over the last few years, there has definitely been an increase in guns located during drug seizures.”

Police shortage

More police officers have been recruited since 2020, a time when a variety of factors heralded a lack thereof. Navarro said Streator is grappling with one such shortage, accounting for three of the pending murder cases in La Salle County.

“Certainly, it’s no fault of the (Streator) police force,” Navarro said. “The fact of the matter is, as I’ve told an open session with the mayor and city manager, they need more officers. They’re woefully short in officers, especially trained investigators, to go ahead and process these crime scenes. It’s very important that the people of Streator continue to insist upon their government getting some more boots on the ground.”

Streator Police Chief John Franklin disputed that characterization of the city’s force, however.

“The Streator Police Department has hired eight officers since my arrival here, just one month shy of three years ago. The city hired three officers within the past 20 months. All are patrolling our city’s streets, making a difference every day.”

Franklin added that the force has two “well-trained” full-time investigators and. He said that although some crime scenes have demanded outside resources, a lack of officers is not the problem. Streator’s current roster of 22 sworn officers is its most populated since 2010.

“Most of our homicides that have occurred here in Streator since my arrival appear to be retaliatory in nature,” Franklin said. “I assure you, having more officers would very likely not have prevented those crimes.”