Deputy discovered concealed bullet hole in Joliet Outlaws clubhouse

A deputy testified that his search of the Joliet Outlaws’ clubhouse in connection with a 2017 murder investigation showed a bullet hole covered up by a smoke detector.

On Tuesday, Will County Sheriff’s Deputy Terry Bergin testified that he and other deputies thought “it looked odd there was a brand new smoke detector” on the ceiling that appeared to have been wiped clean. Bergin said other areas of the ceiling were dirty from tobacco tar.

After the smoke detector was removed, deputies found a small hole, Bergin said.

“Looking at the hole, I recognized it as a bullet hole,” Bergin said.

Bergin said he was able to recover a spent bullet from the ceiling.

Bergin did not testify whether the bullet was the same one that killed 24-year-old Katie Kearns. Jeremy Boshears, 36, is on trial on charges he murdered her and the covered up her death.

Forensic pathologist Valerie Arangelovich said Tuesday that Kearns’ gunshot wound showed signs that a muzzle was pressed against her head. The entrance wound was toward the front of Kearns’ right ear and the exit wound was on the top left side of her head.

Kearns disappeared after finishing her shift as a bartender at Woody’s bar in Joliet on Nov. 12, 2017. Her body was found wrapped in a tarp and mattress on Nov. 16, 2017 inside of a Jeep parked inside of a barn outside a St. Anne residence.

Bergin also testified about recovering ammunition, a gun and three pairs of flannel shirts from Boshears’ Coal City residence. On Monday, jurors viewed black-and-white video of Boshears wearing a flannel shirt at Woody’s bar on the night Kearns disappeared.

Jurors saw color video of Boshears wearing a black-and-white flannel shirt when he and Outlaw prospect Colby O’Neal went to Sunshine Food Mart in Joliet in a failed attempt to buy a smoke detector before successfully buying one at a New Lenox Walmart. O’Neal said the smoke detector was used to cover a bullet hole at the clubhouse.

Prosecutors told Judge Dave Carlson on Tuesday that they did not plan to call Jimmy McCoy as a witness after contemplating whether they would give him immunity. O’Neal had said McCoy was an Outlaw member.

McCoy’s attorney, Neil Patel, previously told Carlson his client would invoke his constitutional right not to incriminate himself. Patel once represented Boshears when he worked for Bretz but has since started his own practice.

Prosecutors had expected McCoy would have testified that Boshears called him shortly after Kearns’ alleged murder and told McCoy that he needed to see him right away and indicated he had “(expletive) up or was (expletive) up.”