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.