Murder in Illinois is a production of iHeartRadio. Christopher Vaughan was arrested nine days after his family was killed as he prepared for their funeral, and he was held for five years before his trial.
Prosecutors had originally planned to try this case as a death penalty case. Vaughn is facing four counts of first degree murder for the killings of his wife, Kimberly, and their three children, twelve year old Abigail, eleven year old Cassandra in eight year old Blake. Prosecutors claim it was Vaughn who pulled the trigger and staged his own injuries.
Prosecutors say Christopher Vaughan killed his family so he could begin a new life in Canada. Vaughan's attorney says the evidence will show Kimberly Vaughan committed murder suicide and that her medication increased her likelihood of suicidal thoughts.
Blood evidence at the scene of the family's suv did not support Vaughn's version of events on that morning in June of two thousand and seven. The defense concedes that Christopher Vaughn was not a perfect husband or father, but in closing arguments, attorney George Leonard claimed that Vaughn is not a killer and that the state did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Ultimately, Christopher Vaughan was convicted in twenty twelve by a jury which took less than fifty minutes to come to a verdict after a five week trial. Vaughn received four lifetime sentences, one for each member of his family. Gaiale Vaughan recently found a note she'd handwritten after visiting Chris after his trial. It dated November eighth, twenty twelve, while Vaughn was still being held at Joliet and had not yet been sentenced. I've asked her to read it.
The note was written on the back of my visit paper. I usually made an outline when I went to visit Chris, and we tried visiting him once a week. I took the train, So here's the note. Chris is realizing that reading chess, learning Chinese are all to keep him from feeling or understanding what happened. He needs to understand what happened.
He may need help.
He doesn't know where to start, who to talk to. He has for the past five years thought about everything except it has been falled off, It's okay to talk to Bill about the innocent project. George was upset over the letter from Rose. He said it should have been sent to Jerry and John. George hopes Chris can wait until after sentencing to ask for help, because he will not get it where he is now. That's what I wrote down, because then it was a trip home on the train to tell my husband.
So the George you're referring to was Chris's public defender, that is correct, and Jerry and John were his first attorneys.
That is correct.
So Rose, your younger sister, wrote a letter to Chris's defense attorney. She was also at every single day of the trial.
Yes, she was. She stayed with us the whole time.
Did you know she planned to write a letter to George.
No, I did not.
Rose kept a copy of that letter, which she has shared with me. It gives a glimpse into the family's frustration. Having watched the five week trial and its conclusion. I've asked her to read one particular paragraph.
I feel that the jury made their mind up the second week of trial. After the second week, they seemed to be asleep more than awake. Specifically, the older lady in the middle row that set next to the ball gentlemen. The men in the back road like to talk amongst themselves. The man in the corner next to the prosecution would hit himself in the face at times. I'm assuming to stay awake. After the third week, when the jury would walk in, they would have more of a glare at us.
During testimony, they would glare in our direction. I would like for it to have been known that Chris and us, the family could not see any of the graphic pictures they wanted to see. All of us have emotion. I feel that the jury wanted a show. The prosecution gave them one. They had fancy power points and graphics. We did not. The interesting thing was the prosecutions weren't always true.
That didn't seem to matter. They needed to know that you were a public defender, not a high profile attorney. I mean no disrespect to you, but if I was a jour that would have meant something. They needed to know why this case took so long to come to try aile. Did they think it was because we were scrounging for evidence. They needed to know about the first lawyers and why they were not on the case. I don't believe that they knew or understood what a shadow of a doubt meant.
Why did you feel compelled to write that letter.
Because there was such a difference in our two sets of lawyers. The first set wanted to know everything, every single thing that they could possibly learn and get any glimmer about Chris, our family structure, the whole nine yards. The second set, which is what I wrote this letter to, couldn't be bothered. We were there, but we weren't listened to. He had his own thoughts and direction. He told us that we were not allowed to talk to anybody, we were not to show emotion at all in the courtroom,
and I think that really worked against us. I mean, it wasn't even an hour of deliberation and we get the verdict. It felt like a gut punch. It was twisted in such a way that it just was very much of a disregard of a human life, and it was just infuriating. It never felt like a fair trial. I mean, when a juror was asleep, sound asleep, nothing was said that we saw the judge look at him, and so how can it be a fair trial? And that's why I wrote this letter. Because somebody has to say something.
I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco and this is the final episode of Murder in Illinois.
Cry O Game to see the Ground.
Gang Crime Gage Well.
Christopher Vaughan is now forty seven years old and at the time of this episode's release, has been incarcerated for more than fourteen years. According to the Illinois Department of Corrections prisoner Database, Christopher Vaughan remains ineligible for discharge. When we met in person, he told me he strives to go unnoticed, spending his time mostly alone, drawing, reading, or studying philosophy in Buddhists thought in effort to process his
loss and his life. As Gails mentioned, he's also taught himself Mandarin and plays competitive chess. Once in prison, Vaughan made the conscious decision to develop his mind as opposed to going the prison route of building his body and brute strength, because doing that would have only made him more in keeping with what he had been accused and
convicted of being a monster. Over the course of this podcast, we have laid out the complicated pieces of an unfathomable tragedy and the legal aftermath that followed in its wake. You've now heard the scope of circumstances leading up to the arrest, indictment, trial, and conviction of Christopher Vaughan. In addition to the existing evidence, both circumstantial and forensics, you now have additional insight into the complex dynamics that played
into the family dysfunction and the investigation. So at this point I pose the question, do you believe there is reasonable doubt that Christopher Vaughan committed the four murders of which he's been and for which he served fourteen years. At the start of this podcast, journalist Erica Wurst was very specific about her opinion of Christopher Vaughn's guilt.
I believe with.
Ninety eight point nine percent, Shorty that Cresta von So his wife Emi in pe Freakot.
Two days before she was scheduled to tape her final thoughts for this episode, she canceled, implying they wouldn't have been utilized. This is where they would have been included. Perhaps, though worst reaction is in keeping with the polarizing nature of this case and podcast, which has sparked spirited discussions, debates online, and coverage from multiple outlets, including Rolling Stone Magazine. Local Chicago stations like WGN.
That's an excerpt from a new true crime podcast called Murder in Illinois.
It details the murders of the Vaughn family in Oswego back in two thousand and seven. Husband christ Vaughan has been arrested and tried and convicted for the killings.
On the next Doctor Phil.
The case and podcast will also be featured in upcoming episodes of The Doctor Phil Show. To put it simply, Christopher Vaughan's conviction has proven more than worthy of revisiting, and during the course of these twelve episodes, we have laid out multiple examples in which circumstantial evidence and emotional and confirmational bias were used in place of hard evidence
against him. The newly uncovered issues with how his indictment was secured and the conclusions of the July crime scene reconstruction also provide new and relevant evidence in support of his actual innocence. After that crime scene reconstruction, I try again to meet with Christopher Vaughan. We sat alone and I asked him what I had to ask him before the end of this podcast. Did he kill his wife and children? And did he ever intend or plan to
kill them? Without hesitation and holding eye contact with me the entire time. Christopher Vaughan answered no, absolutely, not never, and his eyes watered. As he said it today, fourteen years after his arrest, there are significant and powerful voices who believe there is reasonable doubt of Vaughan's guilt.
When I first heard the story, I had doubt about Chris Vaughan having committed this murder. When I reviewed Clutter's evidence, that nagging doubt turned into not only reasonable doubt, but a little bit of outrage. This man is innocent. He was wrongfully convicted.
That's Jed Stone, the Stone of Stone and Associates, a criminal defense lawyer from Illinois who is respected on a national level.
We're a little teeny law firm in Jaukegan, Illinois. It is not one hundred and sixty five lawyers. It's one lawyer, one paralegal, a Spanish speaking receptionist in a little town in northern Illinois. And we've had nine exonerations and my goal is to make mister Vaughan the tenth.
But Stone and Associates will not be alone in their effort. At the time of this recording, Christopher Vaughan is being represented by Jed Stone, who will serve as Vaughn's lead council, assisted by Bill Clutter, investigating Innocence, and outside consultant Richard Kling, clinical Professor of Law at the Chicago Kent College of Law. The involvement of other innocence organizations is still pending official confirmation. Here's Richard Klang.
Jed is wonderful. I know Jed for forty something years. Jed has everything under control. If he has particular questions regarding forensic issues. I teach forensic sciences and I've been involved in many forensic cases. The biggest problem in this case is the physical evidence merely supports a theory. And it may be a viable theory, it may be a
wonderful theory. It may be an airtight theory, but it is nothing more than the theory, and post conviction petitions or clemency are rarely granted on your theories without something more merely an uphill. It's an up mountain slope that mister Vaughan is going to have to climb at. Any time they call, I'll pick up the phone.
But it's a steep effort that jud Stone believes he is both well suited and prepared to.
Lead The first hurdle that any wrongfully convicted person has is the sad fact that the law loves finality more than it loves justice. Judges, prosecutors, the press will all say, this case is resolved. He's been found guilty. A jury of his peers found him guilty. In appelle at court reviewed the jury's findings and affirmed it. They don't like to have the apple cart upset. I have on my desk an encased cockroach, and I have it on my
desk for a reason. When I was a graduate student, many many years ago, living in graduate student housing, I woke up one night and went into the kitchen and flicked on the light, and I saw cockroaches scurry as the light shined on them. I didn't think much about them, except that cockroaches hated the light being shown on them. And then years later I became a lawyer, and I realized that prosecutors and judges don't like the light of truth shined on them. They scurry, they get nervous, And
so I put this cockroach on my desk. It's been on my desk for forty five years, and my experience has been that when the light of truth shines upon these people, they scurry for cover. It's important because your podcast is an important addition to the work that Clutter
and I are doing on behalf of mister Vaughan. I believe that judges and appellate courts and elected state's attorneys are mindful of the eyes of the public that are on them, and as long as we can tell the truth and tell it in a variety of forums, they will respond. It'll be uncomfortable for them, they don't want to deal with these truths, but they will respond. And so those are the two primary hurdles.
Judstone is ready to tackle those hurdles.
I'm convinced that there are things in the newly discovered area of evidence that cause great question as to the quality of the trial that Chris had and the reliability of the results, and we're going to go after that with full force.
And it seems they will fully be met with opposing force. On September fifth, twenty twenty one, the Chicago Sun Times was first to break the news there was now effort underway to free Chris Vaughn. In that article, the will County States Attorney James Glasgow went on record saying Vaughn would go free quote when hell freezes over unquote. It is a comment in keeping with the ones Glasgow gave at the time of the verdict.
What this guy did here was a diabolical atrocity. And he's a heartless, soulless psychopath.
That's the bottom line.
That's what he is, without any compassion, without any empathy for other human beings. There isn't a punishment that fits this crime. You could lock him up for five hundred lifetimes and it would not compensate the victims in this case or the family members.
It is worth noting that a man known for delivering such soundbites declined to speak to me about the Vaughan case or the newly uncovered troubling issues surrounding the way in which Vaughn's indictment was secured. In two thousand and seven, here's Bill Clutter's reaction to the newspaper article.
State's Attorney Glasgow's comments in the Chicago sometimes indicate that he's willing to defend this conviction despite whatever evidence we present to him. And that's all the more reason why we need criminal justice reform in Illinois that establishes a statewide Conviction Integrity Unit. When new evidence comes to light that shows that a person may be innocent, it should be an objective review rather than have the Will County
States Attorney be the arbitrator of truth. That's just simply not justice.
In that article, Glasgow also stated his opinion that the new theory contradicts the crime scene evidence, insisting, quote the angles are all wrong unquote.
Yes, and even seeing our crime scene reconstruction, how can you pass judgment on what we've done without looking at it? That did take me back a little bit. Means he's going to dig in his heels, and you know that's unfortunate. It's a characteristic of how they jumped to the conclusion that he was guilty, and now they're going to maintain
that belief despite whatever evidence we show them. It happens time after time after time in all of these cases that I've been involved in, despite strong and convincing evidence of actual innocence, the prosepcutors who got it wrong are always the last to admit that they made a mistake.
That Chicago Sun Times article ended with James Glasgow declaring the evidence against Vonn is quote overwhelming unquote and that his office is quote ready for anything that occurs unquote back to Bill clutter.
Well, the evidence wasn't overwhelming, and I think that time will tell what happens in this case.
To that effort, Jedstone will also be overseeing a committee of powerful legal experts and innocence activists that has formed an effort to support revisiting Christopher Bond's conviction.
Innocence cases require great teamwork from various angles and various professional viewpoints, and they are really team efforts. No one can do these alone. I can't do them alone. Clutter can't do them alone. Together, we're a pretty good team. The stronger our team, the better mister Vaughan's chances of obtaining justice.
What is the purpose of the committee and what do you hope it will accomplish.
A variety of views from a variety of different lenses will be able to analyze the evidence and come up with a plan that will formulate the arguments I'll ultimately present to the Prisoner Review Board or to a court to gain a reversal of conviction and exoneration. My job is to consolidate those various ideas into a winning idea and take the various threads and form a tapestry, take the various thoughts and form an argument. It's the creative process of being the lawyer that I love.
The committee has been growing steadily at the time of this episode's release. It includes founding board member of the Innocence Project Jason Flohm, prominent defense attorneys Andrea Lyon, Keith Altman, Kitty Lyle, and Mario Kasharo. A quick aside before becoming an attorney, Mario Kasharo was wrongfully convicted of a presumed murder and serve time a minard before being freed and exonerated. There he crossed paths with Christopher Vaughn. The two played
chess several times. Also on board is Jason Jutts, a civil attorney from Hawaii.
My name is Jason Jutts. I'm an attorney in Honolulu, Hawaii, and I do complex civil litigation. What drew me to this case initially was the podcast. I wasn't aware of the case before listening to the first episode, and I just found the case and the idea that Chris is innocent very compelling, which drove me to start digging into the trial transcripts and the pre trial transcripts, and the more I looked at that, the more I became convinced that,
if nothing else, the trial was grossly mishandled. I subscribed to the Blackstonian ratio, which is this idea or philosophy that it's better to let ten guilty persons go free than to punish one innocent person, and I think that
that is very prevalent here. I just wanted to reach out to see what I could possibly do to help, even though I'm so very far away, don't have the legal background in criminal justice, let alone anything to do with Illinois law, but I thought that some of my skills could come to bear and is sitting in his exoneration efforts.
Jets is now connected with Jed Stone to offer his services also pro bono.
I think it's a great thing that the legal community in Illinois is starting to get together and mount support on Chris's behalf. I had a great opportunity to speak with Jed. He's a very knowledgeable, experienced attorney in Illinois, and I'm very appreciative that he's stepped up to take the lead of the committee that's working on behalf of Chris. One of the great things about this podcast is that you've shed light on Chris's flight and gained attention for
him individually. But since this is sort of a national epidemic, I think that it helps bring light to the bigger issue here of how should we approach these cases moving forward? How can we help eliminate some of the bas from
the bench and from the prosecutor side. I'm not even talking about the confirmation bias of the jurors, or the influence of the media, or the character assassination that Chris suffered, but just looking at it through that legal lens, what changes can we make moving forward to try to make sure that innocent individuals aren't placed in in prison. And it's really unfortunate when it happens in a situation where
you're talking about somebody's life. And I think that through the discussion of Chris's case, one thing that's lost frequently is that this started off as a death row case. His life was literally on the line.
Bill Clutter's nonprofit Investigating Inno Sense, will continue to fight for Chris Bond in addition to other wrongful convictions.
I want to encourage listeners to get involved. There's projects in most every state, A Lisence project that helps the wrongfully connected. If listeners are interested in volunteering or assisting within the instigating innocence, go visit our website and let
us know how you're willing to help. I feel more confident today that Christopher Vaughn will be free in the near future and I'll be standing at the gates of Pinkinbill Correctional Center with his parents and supporters welcoming him home, and I can envision that day happening soon.
My hope is that these efforts do lead to either the governor or a judge at some point ordering his release and granting relief based on actual innocence.
Clutter will also be overseeing the second crime scene reconstruction, which will challenge the state's theory in regards to the ballistics beyond what was proven in the July crime scene reconstruction with animation. As mentioned in the first episode of this podcast, Gail Vaughan has a private Facebook page titled Christopher Vaughan is Innocent the last word in all caps.
When Chris went to prison, I tried to figure out how to share this with all the families without making multiple phone calls, so I created a Facebook group and with family and very close friends. There were seventeen of us altogether. Since this podcast started, we have been growing unbelievably. It is turned into a support group.
At the time of this episode, Gail's Facebook group has grown from seventeen people to more than eleven hundred members.
It's overwhelming. I mean, we have been kind of climbing a hill, climbing a mountain, and it's been tough. But now we have these people that are on Facebook and they are actually showing support and positive They are actually reading everything and coming up with their own conclusions and then discussing the possibilities of what happened. I mean, it's very refreshing to see everybody thinking, actually thinking, after reading and hearing after so many years of not so many positive results.
Gail finds it difficult to express her family's feelings regarding the reaction to Chris's case.
This out pouring from my Facebook, from people, especially from Jason Plumm and his generous assistance. It's overwhelming. And then we have these fantastic lawyers that are stepping up and helping us out with Chris. Chris can't believe it. He's amazed that people are helping them, but now we Chris has actually got the possibility of hope in his voice
and his eyes. Chris has got hope. His eyes have changed to the look of resignation, of being here forever because there's no way of getting out to Yes, there is a spark of possibility and it's growing momentum.
And hoping to build upon that momentum. Gail has also started a change dot org petition on behalf of her son.
I have written a petition so to change dot org and it will be under the same heading as my Facebook page or It's easy to remember Christopher Vaughan is innocent and I am hoping to get a lot of signatures that I can take to the Governor of Illinois to ask for Chris's release or pardon.
Host of the Wrongful Conviction podcast and Innocence Active Jason Flohm remains extremely optimistic about the possibility of executive clemency for Vaughn, having himself brokened an impressive number of successful ones throughout the country.
Clemency is such a powerful option, and it's such a powerful power, right, I mean, for lack of a better way of saying it, that is why governors and Presidents in federal cases, of course, are entrusted and given the power of clemency because they are supposed to be the stopgap in these cases of overreach or wrongful conviction, or over sentencing, or other mistakes that are made inevitably in any criminal justicism in ours unfortunately, way too often, and
probably as much or more than ever before in history. But the good news is that there's a governor in Illinois who we know to be an intelligent, fair minded, and decent man who has done phenomenal things to help to tip away at the injustice system in that state, which has a long and sordid history.
Jason Flohm is committed to working on that effort, but has an additional ask too, an effort to prevent other wrongful convictions.
I hope that people who are listening, when you serve on a jury, you recognize that these people are human as well. So if you get a jury duty notice, don't throw it away. I'm talking to our listeners directly.
Now.
If you're busy, I know you're busy. Everybody's busy. It's a huge imposition. It's annoying, it's a nuisance, but you know you have an opportunity to literally be the voice that saves the life of the next Chris Vaughan. And that's not hyperbole. It only takes one vote on a jury of someone to go no. I heard murder in Illinois. I understand now how this can actually go off the rails, and I haven't been convinced beyond a reason doubt. So I'm not going to go along with the other members
of the jury. I'm not going to do what I'm being told to do by people who I now understand are incentivized not to get justice, but to get wins. Right, these people want wins.
And some of those wins come from manipulating emotions or playing into preconceived notions.
And it's so hard for us. We don't want to believe that anymore that we want to believe that babies just die, or that sometimes people snap and sometimes it's a mom and we don't want to believe that. But anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now and hopefully, hopefully they'll touch somebody's heart.
And if you do, find yourself moved to action. In addition to signing Gail's petition and supporting the work of Innocence, organizations in your community. Judstone offers an additional suggestion, We're.
Back to my cockroach. I think that listeners of this show can talk about this wrongful conviction, talk about it in their churches and synagogues and mosques, talk about it in their workplaces, talk about it over dinner with their family, discuss how it is that an innocent person can be convicted of a horrible crime and then raise their voices and say, not under my watch, it's not going to happen, Judge,
Prisoner Review Board Governor Pritsker, do justice. I'm reminded almost every week, certainly right now in this conversation, that when I was a boy sitting in synagogue with my father, there was Hebrew writing on the wall, and I could barely read English, but I certainly couldn't read Hebrew. So I said to my dad what is that? And he told me it's from one of the lesser prophets, a fellow by the name of Micah, and it asks in Hebrew,
what is it that the Lord requires of you? And the answer is really clear and struck me even as a child with its clarity, What is it that the Lord requires of you? Only to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. And I thought, even as a kid, sit, if that's all the God requires of me, I should be able to do that. Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. Well I've gotten two out of the three. I've had a hard time with this humble stuff. But doing justice and loving mercy,
that's all of our jobs in this world. And so what can the listeners do. They can rise up as a voice and say to the powers that be judges in black robes, prosecutors in their offices, governors in their mansions, do justice, love mercy. That's what the Lord requires of us. And so that that's what our podcast listeners can do. They can do justice and love mercy and raise their voices in support of the wrongfully convicted.
And as a closing note, the Vaughan family wanted to address you listeners of the podcast. Here's Gail.
I want to thank them, thank them for opening their hearts, thank them for opening their mind, thank them for listening and drawing their own conclusions, but most of all, supporting us, supporting Chris, supporting our whole family. It's kind of an odd feeling because we have never had that feeling before, so thank you, Thank you so much.
And here's Pierre.
I just want to say that I'm overwhelmed and thankful that people have come forward after all this time and effort that Gail and I have put into this, people on her website, and people like Jed Stone, Jason plom doctor Phil Bill Clutter, and especially you Lauren for doing podcasts and bringing this to everybody's attention. We just want to say thank you from the bottom of our heart. We're not public people, so it's very humbling for us, and once again we're very very thankful to everyone.
Thank you.
As for me, I'm grateful to have played a part in creating something that has inspired discourse to a level where people have actually gotten involved, many even taking the time to pour through the trial transcripts, crime scene reports, and depositions before deliberating over the case online and in chat groups. My team and I truly appreciate your time and your ear. It's also our sincere hope that we
will soon be dropping enough date into this feed. As for Christopher Vaughan, he's asked that I share this statement with you. Thank you so very much for taking the time to listen to my story. I'm hoping that in listening to the details of my case, you will pause to consider the sobering question of innocence and guilt. I am speaking in relation to the broader perspective, as this is and should be about more than my one case alone.
I hope that you will consider not only the possibility, but the reality of our legal system convicting an innocent person. It will only be through your awareness and effort serving as the final check and balance, that those of us wrongfully convicted will have any hope at freedom. Thank you.
And the crimead You Feel the Ground?
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Murder in Illinois? Is a production of iHeartRadio. Executive producers are Lauren Braid Pacheco and Taylor Chackoine. Written by Lauren Brad Pacheco and Matthew Riddle, Story editing by Matthew Riddle, Editing and sound designed by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chaqoine. Featuring music by Cicada Rhythm with new compositions engineered and mixed by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chackoine. Archived news reports provided by w g.
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