Text messages between a Stillman Valley man and his girlfriend that prosecutors say show he intended to kill his ex-wife were read to Ogle County jurors Friday, Jan. 16, over objections by defense attorneys who argued the messages were taken out of context.

Illinois State Police Lt. and Special Agent Nate Macklin testified to messages and other data extracted from cell phones used by Duane “DC” Meyer and his girlfriend, Catherine Mearns, in 2016 before Margaret “Maggie” (Rosko) Meyer was found dead inside her Byron home.

Macklin’s testimony came on the fourth day of the jury trial for Meyer, 43, who is charged with killing Maggie, 31, and then setting her home on fire with their 3-year-old son inside.

Meyer, referred to as DC during the trial, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated arson and one count of concealment of a homicidal death in connection with an Oct. 19, 2016, house fire in which Maggie was found dead.

The couple’s 3-year-old son, Amos Meyer, who was in an upstairs bedroom in the home at the time of the fire, was later pronounced dead at a Rockford hospital.

Meyer has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and has been held in the Ogle County Jail since his arrest Oct. 9, 2019.

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

On Friday, Assistant Ogle County State’s Attorney Matthew Leisten displayed a selection of text messages on the courtroom’s video screen, with Macklin reading the content from some of them.

Most of the messages read were text conversations between DC and Mearns days, and sometimes months, before the fire.

Some of those texts included derogatory comments about Maggie from DC. One dated Aug. 15, 2016 read: “I {expletive} hate this {expletive}. I hate a lot right now. Idk what’s going to happen today. I hate that you hate me. Since meeting you all I’ve wanted was to be that man that got to spend his life next to you. I love you to no end. Your (sic) good bad and ugly. I hope I won’t need bail. See you on the other side.”

Mearns, who was listed in DC’s phone as “My Hopes and Dreams”, responded: “Yep. Have fun in court. Go ahead and kill the {expletive}. I’ll visit you in prison.”

On Aug. 22, 2016, Meyers texted Mearns: “If I did go to jail would you be there for me when I got out?”

Another message, dated July 30, 2016, from DC to Mearns said: “Hate is not a strong enough word for her. That piece of {expletive} will be gone or I’ll die trying” to which Mearns replied: “Yeah, you’ll die trying.”

In other messages, DC and Mearns complained how the relationship with Maggie and Amos was impacting their relationship. They also complained about other family members.

Maggie, who was listed in DC’s phone as “Saggy”, sent DC a message on Sept. 27, 2016, in what appeared to be coordinating visitation with Amos. That message concluded with: “Lastly, you are seven weeks behind on child support and half of his tuition is due on the 1st.”

Defense attorney Christopher DeRango objected to the text messages being entered as evidence, arguing that prosecutors had chosen just a few texts to show jurors and taken them out of context.

And he criticized the extraction procedure used by state police to retrieve the messages as well as the state’s interpretation of those messages.

“You don’t have any idea of the context of those texts,” DeRango said to Macklin during cross examination, accusing the state’s attorney’s office of choosing which texts for Macklin to read.

“Correct,” Macklin replied.

“We have no idea what those other texts said,” DeRango argued, while scrolling through scores of other text messages extracted. “To say the least, they are open for interpretation and some are six months prior to the fire.”

DeRango argued that texts chosen by the state were selected for a “dramatic reading” by Macklin and other texts not selected showed “perfectly normal” exchanges. He characterized some of texts as DC’s exchanges with an “unstable girlfriend who upsets him”.

He questioned Macklin for 90 minutes after arguing that the state had not laid a proper foundation and had not shown a clear change-of-custody path between police agencies.

Leisten said the software used to recover data from cell phones was widely accepted and the data recovered was then placed into a readable format and had not been manipulated.

“We do believe we have established a sufficient chain of custody,” Leisten argued.

Macklin testified that the process investigators used for extracting the data from the cell phones was “widely accepted in the forensic community” and been utilized many times in court cases.

Macklin said the software was designed to parse information accurately.

After reviewing case law and arguments, Ogle County Judge John “Ben” Roe denied DeRango’s repeated objections.

The state’s case is scheduled to resume Tuesday, Jan. 20, due to Monday, Jan.19, being a court holiday.

The trial is estimated to take another two weeks.

Friday morning recap

Gregory Castronovo, an investigator for the State Fire Marshal’s Office, said the fire was extremely heavy on Maggie’s mid-torso and the entire surface of her body was damaged beyond recognition.

He said the “V” burn pattern from the couch indicated to him that the origin of the fire was on the sofa in the first- floor living room where Maggie’s charred body was found in the morning fire. He said damage to the ceiling of the basement – directly below where the sofa was located – also pointed to the fire starting on the sofa.

He said he found no evidence that the fire started from electrical or mechanical issues or a cigarette or candle, with the greatest amount of damage found in the center of Maggie’s body. He said smoke and carbon monoxide from the fire traveled upstairs to the bedroom where Amos was asleep.

Castronovo said the outline of the toddler’s body that could be seen on the mattress in his crib was caused by soot from the smoke. The fire smoldered for some time, but Castronovo could not say as to how long or when it started. He said he responded to the scene after the fire was reported at 6:34 a.m.

Sam South, who worked with DC at the Nippon Sharyo plant in Rochelle in 2016, testified that DC made a comment to him before Maggie’s death when he referred to a 10-foot-by-10-foot wooden box located on the floor of the mechanical area of the factory. South said DC said: “If I could get her in this box all my troubles would be over.”

On cross examination, South could not recall the date the comment was made, did not report the comment to anyone because he didn’t think it was serious and thought DC, who was his boss, was just “venting”.

On Thursday, two forensic pathologists testified they found ante-mortem injuries on Maggie’s body that occurred prior to her death. Both said she died before her body was found in the living room of the home, but could not give a definitive cause of death.

Dr. Mark Peters of Rockton said Maggie’s body was burned “100 percent”, with charring covering her entire body. He said some of the injuries she suffered were from the heat of the fire – which caused limbs to be distorted and one femur to break.

Jurors were shown graphic photos of Maggie’s body, which had no identifying features visible.

Peters and Dr. Hilary McElligott of the DuPage County Coroner’s Office said no soot was found in her throat or lungs, indicating that she was dead when the fire occurred. Examinations of her internal organs found fluid in her lung which was indicative of a prolonged death, possibly by strangulation.

Peters and McElligott said they both found hemorrhaging on the lower part of her scalp and on her back posterior shoulder and neck. Examinations of her skin for other areas of pre-death injuries were made impossible by the severe charring from the fire.

McElligott said the charring on Maggie’s body could have masked other injuries.

However, she said an internal examination under the skin showed hemorrhaging and clotted blood on the skull, beneath the scalp, which indicated some type of blunt trauma before she died.

DNA samples were unable to be taken from the body due to the “significant disruption of tissue” because of the extensive thermal injuries, McElligott said.

Peters said Amos died by asphyxia from carbon monoxide from the fire, indicated by soot in his larynx. In photos presented as evidence by prosecutors, Amos was shown laying on his side, his features intact.

Also testifying on Thursday was Timothy Gray, a senior analyst with Verizon, who was called to testify about cell phone records requested in 2016 by investigators.

Gray started to testify to spreadsheets that prosecutors say listed calls, texts and cell tower locations, but defense attorney Patrick Moore raised many objections as to the accuracy of the data and the foundation for how it was provided on a spreadsheet.

That issue was argued for 90 minutes outside the presence of the jury.

Leisten argued the date on the spreadsheets was compiled from data secured from a 2016 search warrant from the Ogle County Sheriff’s Office.

After reviewing arguments and case law, Roe allowed Leisten to continue questioning Gray over DeRango’s objection.

Prosecutors have argued that their evidence – which includes more cell phone data – will show DC planned to end Maggie’s life.

But the defense has argued that text messages sent by DC before the deaths were only part of a “contentious” divorce and not indicative of anything nefarious.

Prosecutors say they will prove DC “attacked and murdered” Maggie while Amos was sleeping in his upstairs bedroom.

Defense attorneys told jurors that while the deaths were a “heartbreaking tragedy”, DC was not responsible and the state’s case is based solely on circumstantial evidence.