A Stillman Valley man who was found guilty in January of murdering his ex-wife and their 3-year-old son in 2016 will have to wait until April for his attorney to argue why he thinks the jury’s verdicts should be overturned or a new trial granted.

Christopher Durango, the attorney for Duane “DC” Meyer, 43, told Ogle County Judge John “Ben” Roe on Friday that he is waiting for full transcripts to be completed before filing his full motion asking the verdicts be overturned.

“I cannot file the official motion until I receive the transcripts,” DeRango said.

An Ogle County jury found Meyer guilty Jan. 29 of murdering Maggie (Rosko) Meyer, 31, and the couple’s 3-year-old son, Amos, in their Byron home Sept. 19, 2016.

The eight-woman, four-man jury returned guilty verdicts for first-degree murder, aggravated arson and concealment of a homicidal death at the end of a 17-day trial consisting of five days of jury selection, eight days of testimony and arguments and four days of deliberations.

Maggie was a teacher at the Chana Education Center at the time of her death. She filed for divorce in 2014, and court records show the divorce was finalized in September 2016.

Her charred body was found on a couch in her living room the morning of Oct. 19, 2016.

Pathologists determined her death was “highly suspicious for homicide,” testifying she was strangled before the fire spread upstairs and Amos died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning, as evidenced by soot in his airway and lungs.

No soot was found in Maggie’s airway or lungs, but pathologists said there were signs of strangulation and “some type of blunt force trauma” on other parts of her body.

They said they could not determine an exact cause of death because the condition of her severely charred body could have masked other injuries.

During the trial, prosecutors argued Meyer strangled Maggie to death and set her on fire in her home to clear the way for him to pursue a new life with his girlfriend.

They said text message exchanges between Meyer and his girlfriend – extracted from their phones by investigators and analyzed by FBI agents – showed Meyer was “obsessed” with his girlfriend, “hated” Maggie and promised to “eliminate” Maggie and Amos from his life.

Defense attorneys argued Meyer was innocent and that police unfairly targeted him instead of trying to find out who really was responsible for the deaths of Maggie and Amos.

And they argued that text messages about Maggie and her family that were sent before the deaths were “cherry-picked” by prosecutors and taken out of context.

On Feb. 25, DeRango filed a motion for “judgment notwithstanding the verdict, or in the alternative, for a new trial” as is common practice within 30 days of the verdicts. Those post-trial motions will be heard by Roe, who presided over all the pre-trial hearings as well as the jury trial.

In that motion, DeRango claims the court “erred” when it denied the defense’s motions in limine and admitted text messages that “served no purpose other than to place the defendant and his character in bad light before the jury”.

The motion also claims Roe denied defense motions to quash a search warrant and suppress evidence and denied requests to delay the trial due to an “unavailable material witness” and move the trial outside of Ogle County.

It also argues Roe overruled defense objections that “call detail records” taken from Meyer’s cell phone were “inaccurate,” alleging that law enforcement officers had not provided a “meaningful chain of custody” resulting in an “easily altered item”.

DeRango also claims the verdicts are “contrary to the law and to the evidence.”

The state has yet to file its response, but is expected to do so once the official motion is filed.

On Friday, Roe told DeRango and Ogle County State’s Attorney Mike Rock that he believed full transcripts should be available by May 1.

Roe set the next hearing for 3:30 p.m. April 29.

Meyer was remanded to the Ogle County Jail, where he has been held since his arrest in 2019.

First-degree murder is a Class M felony punishable by 20 to 60 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, with truth-in-sentencing applying at 100%.

“Natural life imprisonment is a mandatory punishment when a defendant is convicted of killing two victims,” Rock said.

Aggravated arson is a Class X felony punishable by 6 to 30 years in prison, with truth-in-sentencing applying at 85%. Concealment of a homicidal death is a Class 3 felony punishable by 2 to 5 years in prison.