Too High On PCP? Joliet's Double Murder Defendant Challenges Interview

JOLIET — At the Will County Courthouse, it is very common for some first-degree murder defendants to prolong their cases without ever going to trial for at least five, six, seven, sometimes even 10 years, as is the case of Rodolfo Trujillo of Reflection Court.

One of Joliet's long-standing jail inmates, double first-degree murder defendant, Tommie McDonald, remains focused on keeping his case in the pretrial stage by suggesting that his Feb. 26, 2020 interview with Joliet police detectives Shawn Filipiak and Carlos Matlock violated his Miranda rights because he was under the influence of PCP.

One of Will County's judges has scheduled a hearing on McDonald's motion to suppress his statements for Feb. 26 in Courtroom 402, which also happens to be the five-year anniversary of McDonald's incarceration in the Will County Jail on his Joliet double murder charges.

The motion to suppress McDonald's interrogtion came from Will County Public Defenders Jaya Varghese and Stephen Whitmore. The filing notes that McDonald also faces charges of unlawful use of a weapon, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and armed habitual criminal surrounding the two slayings on Joliet's South Chicago Street, shooting deaths of 53-year-old Bernard Marble and 45-year-old Tracy L. Williams.

Officers found Marble and Williams inside a sports utility vehicle. The 45-year-old Williams was already dead when police got there. Marble died at St. Joe's hospital.

According to the public defenders' motion filed on behalf of their client, McDonald:

At 12:49 a.m., on Feb. 26, 2020, a Joliet police officer responded to a vehicle parked in the roadway at Fifth and South Chicago. The driver was slumped over the wheel and broken glass was on the street. The driver had a gunshot to his face, and a backseat passenger was also unresponsive and slumped over on the seat.

As Joliet police investigated the two shooting victims, about 25 minutes later, Tommie McDonald walked up to the crime scene and approached the officers. One of the officers recognized McDonald from his prior arrests. McDonald asked the officer if that was Tracy Williams inside the sports utility vehicle. The officer said he did not know and when he asked McDonald why, McDonald said he was just wondering.

McDonald did not say anything when the Joliet police asked if he knew what happened; he just walked away from the scene. Then, around 2:55 a.m., Joliet police contacted McDonald to let him know his identification was found inside the SUV where the two were slain.

Joliet police went to the house of McDonald's girlfriend and McDonald was asked to come to the Joliet police station to talk about the crime. Three witnesses had already spoken with Detective Matlock about seeing a black man walking away from the vehicle, then back toward it.

Matlock and Filipiak began their interrogation of McDonald at 3:19 a.m. and it lasted for 11 hours, 51 minutes and 57 seconds.

"Defendant shows signs of confusion and intoxication during the interrogation," his public defenders argued.

When Matlock asked McDonald "what happened," the double murder suspect responded he had "a little water," which is slang for PCP.

"I'm still f***** up, know what I'm saying?" McDonald responded. "I don't know what happened."

McDonald later remarked, "You know what sherm do? I been smoking long time."

After 4 hours and 31 minutes of interogation, McDonald is read his Miranda rights by the two detectives, and he answered, "Yes."

About 50 minutes afterward, McDonald told the two detectives, "I'm not worried about this cuz I know if I shot him, if he was trying to do something, I wasn't trying to hurt Tracy, I don't know what the f*** happened."

After another hour passed, McDonald informed the detectives,"I just hope he's OK. He's like my brother."

Nearly two hours after that statement, Matlock and Filipiak asked McDonald about his use of PCP, also known as sherm.

"Like two of them," McDonald answered.

When the detectives inquired if McDonald was getting "shermed" a lot lately, he replied, "Yeah, man."

According to McDonald's public defenders, "throughout the interrogation, the defendant displays intoxication due to PCP usage. That defendant's state of intoxication from his usage of PCP rendered his waiver of Miranda null as the waiver was not knowingly and voluntarily entered ... Defendant Tommie McDonald respectfully requests this honorable court to suppress all of the defendant's pre-arrest and post arrest statements, both oral and written."