April 30, 2025
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Opening statements set Tuesday in bow-and-arrow killing case in La Salle County

French faces 20-60 years if convicted in do-over murder trial

By Tom Collins
La Salle County Courthouse

A jury of six women and seven men (including an alternate juror) will hear opening statements at 9 a.m. Tuesday in a 2015 bow-and-arrow killing. (Derek Barichello - dbarichello@shawmedia.com)

A jury of six women and seven men (including an alternate juror) will hear opening statements at 9 a.m. Tuesday in a 2015 bow-and-arrow killing.

Bradley French, 30, of Varna, would face 20 to 60 years in prison if convicted of first-degree murder. He was charged after Joshua Scaman of Ottawa bled to death in a parking lot at Illinois Valley Community College. Scaman had been struck with a razor-tipped hunting arrow.

French was previously found guilty of Scaman’s murder, but an appeals court reversed his conviction. After multiple delays, the do-over trial begins this week in La Salle County Circuit Court.