New trial date set for Geneva man accused of killing his wife

ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP – A new trial date of Aug 12 has been set for Shadwick King, a Geneva man whose conviction of first-degree murder in the death of his wife was overturned.

Kane County Judge John Barsanti set the new date for the jury trial on Jan. 21.

King was convicted in 2015 of murdering his wife, Kathleen King, and putting her body on train tracks. The couple were residents of Geneva at the time.

King, 53, was serving a 30-year sentence at Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg, but was transferred to the Kane County jail March 11, 2020, records show, after the Illinois Supreme Court overturned his conviction and ordered a new trial.

King always maintained his innocence.

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled unanimously Jan. 21, 2020 that King should be granted a new trial because Kane County prosecutors committed several errors, among them allowing a former FBI profiler to testify as a crime scene expert witness when he was not.

“We respect the court’s decision and we are prepared to re-try the case,” then-Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon had said in a statement at the time.

King had appealed his conviction to the Illinois Second District Appellate Court in Elgin. The Appellate court also issued a unanimous ruling Aug. 21, 2018, overturning King’s conviction and ordering a new trial.

McMahon had appealed that decision to the Illinois Supreme Court, which upheld the Appellate ruling.

The 27-page appellate decision cited the testimony of Mark Safarik, a “crime scene and behavioral analyst” as beyond the scope of his expertise.

Likewise, the 22-page state supreme court decision also found that Safarik should not have testified.

“There is absolutely no question that Safarik never should have been allowed to testify as an expert in this case,” the ruling stated. “To begin with, significant portions of Safarik’s testimony went far beyond the field of ‘crime scene analysis,’ which is Safarik’s undeniable field of expertise.”

The Supreme Court decision also stated, “We will not condone the calling of experts solely for the purpose of shoring up one party’s theory of the case, which is precisely the role that Safarik played here.”

After Judge James Hallock announced King’s sentence in July 2015, King restated his his innocence.

“I never laid a hand on her, not one time,” King said. “I did not kill my wife. To the day I die, I did not do it.”

Prosecutors presented evidence in court that sometime after 5 a.m. July 6, 2014, King asphyxiated his wife at their home, killing her. The 32-year-old’s body was found that morning on the Union Pacific tracks near the 200 block of Briar Lane and Esping Park in Geneva.

King had told Geneva detectives that he believed his wife had been the victim of an accident after going for a run around 6:30 a.m. that day.

McMahon issued a news release at the time that the 30-year sentence was suitable.

“Mr. King committed the ultimate act of domestic violence in a fit of jealousy and rage,” McMahon stated in the release. “This sentence is a suitable price for Mr. King to pay, but it’s nothing compared to the cost borne by their children, who must live with the burden of their own father taking their mother from them. Although the sentence will not erase the hollow feeling that Kathleen’s family and friends have felt since her death, I do hope they see it as just.”