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Thread: David Gorski (30) killed by Kenneth Seplak (36)

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    David Gorski (30) killed by Kenneth Seplak (36)

    https://www.chicagotribune.com/subur...612-story.html

    Currently Seplak is on trial for the murder but in the allegations there are some incel characteristics here.

    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.

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    https://www.dailyherald.com/news/201...d-lover-begins

    "'Talk to me, Sandy, stop ignoring me,'" reads the final text message a Round Lake Beach man accused of gunning down a romantic rival sent the woman that was the object of both men's affections, according to prosecutors.

    A Lake County jury heard opening statements Tuesday in the trial to decide if Kenneth Seplak, now 39, murdered David Gorski two days before Christmas 2016. Gorski, 30, was shot to death while driving on Milwaukee Avenue in Libertyville after seeing a movie with the Wauconda woman whom Seplak described as the girl of his dreams, authorities say.

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    Assistant Lake County State's Attorney Jim Newman said Seplak met Sandy Moreno through his job delivering beer to the Thornton's gas station where she worked as a clerk. Newman said the two went on a few dates in the fall of 2016, and Moreno asked Seplak for help with bills and expenses, requests that started small but ended up totaling about $13,000.

    Frustrated that their relationship had not become physical, Seplak once texted Moreno that he felt they should at the "very least be friends with benefits" for all the money he'd given her, Newman said.

    On Sept. 30, Moreno blocked Seplak's number, unblocking it only to make arrangements to repay the $13,000 she owed him, according to Newman.

    Newman told jurors that data collected from Seplak's cellphone the night of Dec. 23, 2016, shows he followed Moreno to the AMC Hawthorn 12 movie theater in Vernon Hills, where she met Gorski for a date. The data indicates Seplak then went to his parent's house, where prosecutors believe he got a gun, before returning to the theaters, Newman said.

    Seplak later followed Gorski and shot him through the passenger's-side window of his Volkswagen sedan as he drove down Milwaukee Avenue about 11 p.m., Newman said.

    Seplak attorney Daniel Hodgkinson told jurors there are no eyewitnesses or video surveillance of the shooting.

    "They have no video to tell you what happened and none of those things speak to the charges of first-degree murder," Hodgkinson said.

    The defense lawyer said Moreno manipulated Seplak "all the way" and cut off their relationship on Dec. 17, after he told her he had lost his job.

    "She knew the bank of Ken Seplak was closed," he said.

    Hodgkinson said Seplak was at movie theater the night of the killing but only because Moreno told him they were dating exclusively and he suspected she was seeing another man.

    "He wanted to see for himself," Hodgkinson said.

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    https://www.dailyherald.com/article/...ews/161229103/

    A Lake County judge set bail Wednesday at $3 million for a Round Lake Beach man accused of killing a man after seeing him go to a movie with a woman authorities say the suspect was stalking.

    Kenneth S. Seplak, 37, of the 1400 block of North Lake Shore Drive, is charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of David E. Gorski, who was found shot Friday night behind the wheel of his car in the middle of Milwaukee Avenue in Libertyville.

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    Gorski, 30, of Libertyville was later pronounced dead at Advocate Condell Medical Center.

    Authorities say Gorski was shot to death after he and a 30-year-old Wauconda woman attended a movie at AMC Hawthorn 12 theater in Vernon Hills. Investigators learned the woman and Gorski recently began dating and drove to the theater separately, Lake County sheriff's Sgt. Christopher Covelli said Wednesday.

    Seplak previously was accused of stalking the woman at her home, Covelli added. He described the woman and Seplak as prior acquaintances.

    Lake County prosecutor Lisa LeBoeuf said in court Wednesday that GPS records from Seplak's mobile device showed he was at the Vernon Hills theater at the same time as Gorski and the Wauconda woman. The GPS shows Seplak's vehicle went north on Milwaukee Avenue near where Gorski was shot and then to the home of Keith D. Garcia, 31, of the 41000 block of North Route 83 near Antioch, authorities said.

    Garcia later found a .38-caliber handgun and ammunition and turned them over to investigators, authorities say. The bullet recovered from Gorski matched the weapon found by Garcia, and test results show gunshot residue from the weapon matched what was found on Seplak, authorities said.

    In court Wednesday, defense attorney Steven McCollum sought $300,000 bail for Seplak, saying the Round Lake Beach man does not have a criminal history and has been living with his parents. McCollum said after court that Seplak was laid off after 10 years on a job he did not specify.

    "Very steady guy," McCollum said. "Never missed work or anything. Now, he lives with his parents, taking care of his parents. His father's got some medical problems, and so he's been helping them."

    Lake County Major Crime Task Force and Libertyville police continue to investigate the killing. They ask that anyone with information or who may have witnessed something to call police at (847) 362-8310.

    Seplak, who's being held at the Lake County jail, is scheduled to appear in court again Jan. 25.

    In the meantime, Garcia also is behind bars, facing drug charges stemming from about 3,000 grams of marijuana police say they found in his home while investigating Seplak, LeBoeuf said. He's charged with unlawful possession of marijuana with intent to deliver.

    A judge set Garcia's bail at $100,000 on Wednesday. His defense lawyer, Douglas Zeit, said his client works and "was extremely cooperative with police" when they visited his home.

    Garcia's next court appearance is set for Jan. 19.

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    https://www.dailyherald.com/news/201...c-relationship

    The Wauconda woman at the center of Kenneth Seplak's murder trial in the death of a man he thought was a romantic rival testified Wednesday that she repeatedly told Seplak she was not interested in anything more than friendship.

    But Sandy Moreno also admitted to the jury she accepted Seplak's offers of money and gifts -- and even "jokingly" told him the size of items she wore from Victoria Secret should he want to buy her something. Defense attorneys have claimed in court previously that Moreno manipulated Seplak for money until he lost his job.

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    Seplak, 39, of Round Lake Beach, who is charged with three counts of first-degree murder for killing David Gorski, 30, of Libertyville, faces life in prison if found guilty.

    Authorities allege Seplak killed Gorski on Dec. 23, 2016, after Seplak followed Moreno to the AMC Hawthorn 12 movie theater in Vernon Hills and saw her meet up with Gorski, authorities said.

    Gorski was found shot to death about 11 p.m. behind the wheel of his car on Milwaukee Avenue in Libertyville. Gorski and Moreno drove to and left the theater in separate cars.

    Assistant Lake County State's Attorney James Newman has told jurors data collected from Seplak's cellphone shows he drove to the theater. The data also indicates Seplak went to his parent's house, where prosecutors believe he grabbed a gun and returned to the theater.

    Authorities have said Seplak stalked Moreno after pushing to have the friendship turn sexual. He called her the "woman of my dreams."

    Moreno testified she never obtained an order of protection or filed a police report but did have a text conversation about the situation with an Island Lake police officer she knew. She said the officer urged her to get an order of protection, but she was unable to get out of work to do so.

    She also testified "I didn't feel safe" when Seplak would show up at her store unannounced or leave hand written messages on her car at her house or at work.

    Mareno, who was married, admitted under cross examination by defense attorney Daniel Hodgkinson that she never told her husband, Gorski, or another male friend about Seplak.

    Prosecutors said previously in court that Seplak met Moreno through his job delivering beer at a gas station where she worked as a clerk. Newman said the two went out a couple of times, and Moreno asked Seplak for help with bills and expenses.

    Officials said the monetary requests started small but ended up totaling about $13,000.

    Seplak became increasingly frustrated the relationship had not become physical, and he texted Moreno frequently after Sept. 1, 2016. He repeatedly professed his love and texted they should become "friends with benefits," but she never responded, Moreno testified. Those text messages were displayed in court for the jury.

    Moreno blocked Seplak's number when the text messages started to become more frequent and increasingly sexual, she said in court. She unblocked his number only to make arrangements to repay the $13,000 he claimed she owed when she stopped responding to the text messages, she said.

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    https://www.chicagotribune.com/subur...613-story.html

    Wauconda woman testified Wednesday that she had accepted money from murder defendant Kenneth Seplak, but that she had repeatedly made it clear to him they were not a couple in the months prior to the 2016 shooting death of a Libertyville man who had gone to a movie with her.

    Seplak, of Round Lake Beach, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 30-year-old 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 seen a movie together the evening of Dec. 23, 2016.


    Prosecutors have said Seplak followed the woman to the theater without her knowledge that night and realized she was meeting another man there. Authorities said after Gorski left the theater parking lot in his car, Seplak allegedly shot Gorski on Milwaukee Avenue in Libertyville.


    A photo taken by a media pool photographer shows Assistant State's Attorney Jim Newman reading text messages aloud Wednesday during the murder trial of Kenneth Seplak. (Brian Hill/Daily Herald)
    On the second day of testimony in Seplak’s trial, the woman, under questioning by Assistant State’s Attorney Jim Newman, said that she and Seplak were friends, but she had told him he was not her boyfriend and never would be.

    In the three months prior to the shooting, authorities said Seplak sent her a total of almost 200 texts.

    Transcripts shown to the jury and in court showed that most of Seplak’s texts professed his love for her, and his desire to have her, calling her “the woman of my dreams” on several occasions.

    But he also made it clear that he was unhappy with the one-way courtship.

    “Only getting to see you once a month ain’t cutting it for me,” he wrote in one, but then apologized in a follow-up text.

    In one text he asked, “Is there someone else,” and the woman responded, “Yeah, my kids.”

    Eventually the woman blocked Seplak’s messages after asking him repeatedly to stop texting so much, and in court she said she had not seen all of the texts he had sent her until she unblocked him on her phone at the request of investigators after the shooting, and a multitude of texts popped up.

    In opening statements, defense attorney Dan Hodgkinson said the woman used Seplak’s feelings for her benefit.

    He said the woman knew just how to manipulate him for money, 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.

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    On Wednesday, Hodgkinson pointed to an example while the texts were being displayed. He noted that the woman had asked Seplak on a date to Six Flags Great America, but then cancelled, but still asked if he could drop off money for her at work the next day to help pay debts.

    Hodgkinson said Tuesday that Seplak and the Wauconda woman “had started a relationship in 2015” and that she had accepted a total of about $13,000 from Seplak during the time they were seeing each other, even though she was dating two other men and was still married with a divorce pending at the time.

    Hodgkinson also asked the woman whether she had told Gorski or her husband about Seplak and the behavior she said she found worrisome, and she responded that she had not.

    Stating that her husband was “the one who watches your children,” Hodgkinson told the woman, “You weren’t that scared of him (Seplak), correct?”

    “That’s not true,” she responded.

    Newman said Tuesday 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.

    Newman said Seplak had followed the woman to the theater on the evening of Dec, 23, 2016, 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 entered his chest and pierced his heart, according to the Lake County Coroner’s Office.

    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.

    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 took a handgun and ammunition out 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.

    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, or 10% 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, prosecutors said.

    Seplak’s trial is expected to conclude Friday or Monday, officials said.

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