Assistant State?s Attorney Jim Newman opened the murder trial of Kenneth Seplak Tuesday with the last text Seplak allegedly sent to ?the girl of his dreams.?
?Talk to me. Stop ignoring me,? Newman said Seplak sent to a Wauconda woman who Seplak considered his ?dream girl,? but Newman said that the woman did not feel the same way about Seplak.
Seplak, 36, is accused of shooting to death a 30-year-old Libertyville man who had just seen a movie with the woman on whom authorities said Seplak was fixated.
He is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the 2016 death of Libertyville resident David Gorski, who was found dead in his car less than a mile from the Vernon Hills movie theater where Gorski and the woman had just been, Newman said.
Addressing the jury, Newman said Seplak had gone out a few times with the woman, but she made it clear it was a platonic relationship, even though the single mother accepted considerable amounts of money from Seplak in the year prior to Gorski?s death.
Upset that the woman was not returning his affection and money with romance, Newman said Seplak asked the woman if they could be ?friends with benefits,? based on the amount of money he had given her for costs ranging from car payments to a divorce lawyer as she was ending her former marriage.
?She said that will never happen,? Newman told the jury.
Newman said the woman had been dating Gorski, but the two were dating other people and were not exclusive. He said Gorski was never told about Seplak and his behavior toward the woman, including unwanted appearances at her home.
He said Gorski had a good job, friends and an apartment in Libertyville and, ?Life was really good Dec. 23, 2016 for David.?
But, Newman said, Seplak had followed the woman to the theater on the evening of Dec, 23, 22016, and he saw her go into the AMC movie theater in Vernon Hills to see a movie ?with another man.?
Gorski was discovered dead that night in his car on the median of Milwaukee Avenue near Hollister Drive not long after the movie had let out, authorities said.
He was shot once with a bullet that traveled through his arm and then reentered his chest and pierced his heart, according to the Lake County Coroner?s Office.
Newman said the Lake County Major Crime Task Force was called in on the case, and after Gorski?s friends mentioned the woman, police interviewed her at her home, telling her Gorski was dead and asked if she was in conflict with anyone in her life, such as her ?soon-to-be? ex-husband.
Newman said the woman, too overwhelmed to talk, wrote the word ?Kenny? on a piece of paper and gave it to officers.
He said she then got her phone and unblocked Seplak, whom she had blocked after she asked him to stop texting her, and in front of the officers, ?196 blocked text messages popped up from the defendant to (the woman).?
Newman said Seplak had allowed officers to search his phone, and while he told them he was at home at his parents? house in Round Lake Park with his phone that night, the phone showed he had traveled to the movie theater in Vernon Hills, the area on Milwaukee Avenue in Libertyville where Gorski was shot and then out to a house near Antioch.
Officers went to that house and spoke with a friend of Seplak, who, after being told a search warrant would be obtained, took officers into his garage and pulled a handgun and ammunition from underneath the seat of his car, Newman said.
The .38-caliber revolver was tested and the bullet that killed Gorski was found by experts to have been fired from that gun, which the homeowner said Seplak asked him to hide for him, Newman said.
Newman said testing on Seplak?s shirt cuff from the night of the shooting came back positive for gunshot residue.
Defense attorney Daniel Hodgkinson asked the jury to reserve judgment in the case, saying despite the narrative offered by Newman, ?We believe the evidence is going to show something else entirely.?
Hodgkinson said Seplak and the Wauconda woman ?had started a relationship in 2015? and that she had taken a total of about $13,000 from Seplak during the time they were seeing each other, even though she was seeing two other men and was technically still married at the time.
He said the woman knew just how to manipulate him for money, even planning dates but then cancelling at the last minute ?saying something came up,? but often asking him to drop off money the next day at her work.
Hodgkinson also homed in on the gun being found at the home near Antioch. He said that in addition to the gun that was given to them by the homeowner, police found bricks of marijuana in the same car, but didn?t seem to care about that or the murder weapon as much as focusing on Seplak.
?They were only concerned about Ken Seplak and nothing else,? he said.
Seplak has been out of jail on bond since shortly after his arrest in late 2016, after a relative posted a check for $300,000, 10 percent of Seplak?s $3 million bail. His bond conditions include electronic monitoring and a 24-hour curfew.
If convicted, Seplak could be sentenced to up to natural life in prison.
Attorneys said the trial, featuring a number of witnesses, is expected to last until at least Friday.
Reply With Quote