Will Jeremy Boshears, Joliet's Murder Defendant, Finally Go Home?

JOLIET, IL — In one of his final rulings ever, outgoing Will County Judge Dave Carlson will convene Courtroom 405 at 9:30 a.m. on Monday to announce his decision on the pretrial release for 38-year-old former Coal City resident Jeremy Boshears. In May 2022, a jury of Will County citizens unanimously agreed that Boshears was guilty of first-degree murder and concealment of a homicide in the November 2017 death of 24-year-old Katie Kearns.

Kearns served alcoholic beverages at Woody's Bar on Joliet's old industrial east side near the Canadian National rail yard. The bar along Washington Street is just down the road from the Joliet Outlaws Clubhouse, where Boshears often liked to spend his free time in 2017.

After she finished tending bar, Kearns made the short drive to the Joliet Outlaws clubhouse. Inside, she and Boshears were joined by one of the club's probate members, Colby O'Neal. After O'Neal left to drive home to Seneca, Kearns and Boshears remained all alone. Then, a gunshot rang out. Kearns fell to the floor. She was dead.

Exactly what happened remains a source of dispute, now seven years later.

The Will County State's Attorney's prosecutors convinced all 12 jurors that Boshears held a loaded gun against her head and pulled the trigger, killing her.

During the final minutes of her life, Kearns was receiving several sexually explicit text messages from a former boyfriend, according to trial testimony. Prosecutors insist that Boshears became aware of this, and during his jealous rage, he fatally shot Kearns, who had become his recent girlfriend.

What is not in dispute is that Boshears made a flurry of phone calls during the middle of the night, notifying fellow Joliet Outlaws of Kearns' death. Other Outlaws drove to their clubhouse, helping Boshears retrieve a mattress and a pool table cover to discard Kearns' lifeless body from their premises.

Her body was carried outside and loaded into the back of her Jeep Wrangler. Boshears got behind the wheel, and he drove an hour south of Joliet. He drove her to the Kankakee County farmhouse of Ronald and Georgia Keagle. Ronald Keagle was the recently retired president of the Joliet Outlaws, and Boshears' considered Keagle's wife as a second mother.

Boshears told the Keagles he had car trouble, and they helped him push the Jeep Wrangler into their pole barn — not knowing the body of Kearns remained in the back of the Jeep, according to the trial testimony from the Keagles.

Eventually, Will County Sheriff's investigators converged upon the St. Anne farm because that's where the cell phone pings for Kearns' phone led them. Her phone was found inside her Jeep.

As for Boshears, he made himself accessible to the sheriff's investigators shortly after they became aware of Kearns' disappearance. However, Boshears insisted that he walked Kearns outside the Joliet Outlaws clubhouse and that she left to drive herself home.

During Wednesday's hearing, prosecutor Mark Shlifka reminded Judge Carlson that Boshears sent a text message to Kearns, even though Kearns was already dead.

"He sends her a message, knowing she's already dead, 'I hope you made it home OK,'" Shlifka reminded the judge. "Everything he did that night was to thwart the judicial process, all to a woman he wanted to leave his wife for."

On Wednesday, Shlifka argued the community at large and various members of the Joliet Outlaws who were affiliated or testified during the trial, would find themselves in grave danger if Boshears is granted pretrial release, prior to the date for his eventual re-trial for first-degree murder.

Shlifka said that prosecutors do not believe Boshears' version of events.

Two years ago, Boshears testified in his own defense during his trial that O'Neal, the Joliet Outlaws probate, left his loaded gun behind the bar at the clubhouse and that Kearns grabbed the gun, put the pistol to her head as Boshears begged her not to harm herself, but she pulled the trigger and took her own life right in front of him.

Joliet criminal defense attorney Chuck Bretz argued that Boshears is not a danger to society or anyone remotely affiliated with the Joliet Outlaws. Boshears was only with the Outlaws for about a year, Bretz said, and Boshears has no ties, no standing at all with the Outlaws nowadays. "He was in that organization about a year of his life. He had a valid FOID and no criminal history. There is simply (no evidence) that he's guilty of anything he's charged with."

During these past six-and-a-half years of incarceration at the Will County Jail, Boshears has been one of the most well-behaved inmates for the Will County Sheriff, Bretz insisted. Boshears has had zero disciplinary problems at the jail.

As for what happens once he gets out, Boshears plans to live with one of his uncles, here in Will County, and Boshears already has a job lined up, according to Bretz. "There's no reason to believe he would not follow any mandates of this court," Bretz emphasized. "There's no proof that he's made a threat to anybody."

As for Georgia Keagle, "he called her mom. He and Colby (O'Neal) were friends. There's nothing that's ever happened to these people."

Under the conditions of the new Illinois SAFE-T-Act, Bretz maintained Boshears should regain his freedom as he awaits his second first-degree murder trial.

During Wednesday's hearing on the question of pretrial release, Judge Carlson suddenly realized that pursuant to the SAFE-T-Act, criminal defendants should undergo a pretrial risk assessment to help determine whether they pose a danger to the community.

Nobody had ever done a pretrial risk assessment for Boshears, who was incarcerated under the now-abolished Illinois cash bail system, back in 2017, when now-retired Will County Judge Carla Alessio Policandriotes set bail at a steep $10 million.

Judge Carlson informed everyone he was ordering Will County's pretrial court services to conduct a risk assessment on Boshears, and he wanted the results prepared and presented for his review by 9:30 a.m. Monday. That is when Carlson intends to announce his decision on whether he will support or reject Boshears' motion for pretrial release.

As for Carlson, April 30, which is Tuesday, marks his last official day on the bench. The long-time Will County judge is returning to private practice as a Joliet-based personal injury lawyer for a Chicago firm.

Related Joliet Patch coverage over the years:

Boshears Cries As Jury Sees Photos Of Katie Kearns' Body

3 Pushed Katie Kearns' Body Into Pole Barn: Testimony

Joliet Outlaws Murder: Judge Decides On Retrial For Jeremy Boshears