Attorney was requested 60 times
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March 17, 2010
By BETH KRAMER ekramer@stmedianetwork.com
Sloppy police work is keeping a videotaped murder confession out of a Waukegan man's trial, a Lake County judge ruled Tuesday.
Clarence Weber Jr., 60, was shown on video admitting to police that he stabbed his wife to death outside a Lincolnshire hotel on July 5, 2008.
However, defense attorneys Lou Bailey and Katherine Hatch pointed out that police continued to question him after he said he wanted a lawyer.
The video showed Weber asking for a lawyer about 60 times, Bailey told the court at Tuesday's hearing.
"He makes it clear he wanted an attorney. At that point, officers should have stopped. At that point, everything should stop," Judge Theodore Potkonjak said.
Only about and a half of the video will be permitted in the trial, Potkojnak allowed. In this portion of the video -- which was recorded in Lake County, Ind., where Weber was taken into custody -- Weber admits he was in his wife's car the day of the murder.
At the beginning of the interview, he said he was not in Lake County, Ill.
Everything else he said to officers after he requested a lawyer was barred from the trial, including a comment Weber made to officers transporting him to the Waukegan police station.
After the videotaped interview ended on July 8, 2008, Weber spent the night in Indiana. The next day, he was taken to Illinois. While in the vehicle with officers, he asked an officer if he could get second-degree murder. This was not asked in response to anything an officer said to him.
Since Weber posed that question after he requested an attorney, Potkonjak ruled that the statement will be excluded from trial.
"At the end of the day, they violated his rights -- no ifs, ands or buts about it," Bailey said.
Weber was charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of his wife, Adelina Weber, 31, over differences regarding their pending divorce. In June 2008, Adelina Weber is said to have filed for divorce and wanted custody of their two children.
On July 5, 2008, Weber left a note on Adelina's vehicle, asking her to meet him at a location in Lincolnshire. He admits to this on video footage, part of the hour and a half that Potkonjak allowed into evidence.
Adelina was fatally stabbed later that day near the Springhill Suites Marriott hotel in Lincolnshire. She had just completed her shift as a waitress at the nearby Walker Bros. pancake house when she was attacked. She was pronounced dead an hour later. Lake County Coroner Dr. Richard Keller said she died of a stab wound to the chest.
In the year prior to the stabbing, Waukegan police were called to the Webers' house in the 3400 block of North Lewis Avenue several times for reported disturbances.
Adelina Weber had requested a restraining order against her husband. She said she feared for her safety and said her husband was mentally abusive.
In May 2008, Waukegan firefighters battled a fire at the Webers' house. Clarence suffered minor injuries. Adelina was not home at the time of the fire, and later moved in with relatives in the 2400 block of Waverly Place.
Clarence Weber had served jail time in Florida in 1989, serving six years on a 19-year sentence for aggravated assault, attempted murder, kidnapping, arson, burglary, two counts of grand theft, battery to a officer, and resisting a law enforcement officer with violence. He was released from a Florida prison on Aug. 30, 1995.
If found guilty, Weber could serve 20 years to life.
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