Jury chosen for Wilson double murder trial in Sycamore, expected to convene Thursday

SYCAMORE – With a jury selected, a long-awaited murder trial is expected to convene Thursday for Jonathan Hurst, charged almost five years ago in the killings of Sycamore elderly mother and son Patricia and Robert Wilson. The Wilsons were found slain in their home in August 2016.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Hurst, 55, formerly of Chicago and Cincinnati, could face a life sentence. He’s been held without release in the DeKalb County Jail in Sycamore for almost five years since his February 2020 arrest.

DeKalb County State’s Attorney Riley Oncken told Shaw Local on Wednesday morning that half the 12-person jury still needed to be selected. Prosecutors, Hurst’s defense team and Circuit Court Judge Marcy Buick took up proceedings again at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday to choose the six other jurors and four alternate jurors needed before the trial can convene. Buick earlier this month said “unique considerations” were needed for jury selection in the high-profile case.

[ DeKalb County sheriff announces arrest in killings of Patricia Wilson and Robert Wilson of Sycamore ]

By about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oncken said the final jurors had been chosen. Prosecutors are expected to begin their opening statements at 9 a.m. Thursday.

A DeKalb County judge has granted Shaw Local permission for extended media coverage in the courtroom throughout the proceedings.

Almost a decade since the Wilsons were found beaten to death in their home. Who were they?

Thursday will mark day three of what could be lengthy proceedings before the possibility of a verdict in a case that has hung over the Sycamore community – and the Wilson family – for almost a decade.

It’s been almost nine years for family and loved ones since Patricia A. Wilson, 85, and Robert J. Wilson, 64, were found beaten to death inside their home at 16058 Old State Road. Delays, the coronavirus pandemic and attorney changes have littered the past five years of pretrial hearings as prosecutors seek to prove to a 12-person jury that Hurst was the one responsible for the Wilsons' gruesome deaths.

The Wilsons were well-liked in the community, and police have not released any motive for the killings.

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Patricia, born Jan. 2, 1931, was preceded in death by her husband, James, and son, Michael. Patricia and John were married for 64 years. She was a 1948 graduate of Hinckley High School and active in her church community at Immanuel Lutheran Church in DeKalb and then, later, St. John Lutheran Church in Sycamore. She worked for many years at Northern Illinois University, the late Sycamore Mayor Ken Mundy, who knew the Wilsons through church, told Shaw Local in August 2016.

Robert, affectionately called “Smiley” by friends, was the primary caregiver for his mother, who he lived with at their rural Old State Road home.

The home remains standing today, although no one lives there. It’s owned by members of the Wilson family still, according to DeKalb County property records. The structure is about 100 feet back from the road and surrounded by trees. Rear portions of the property abut the Great Western Trail, which runs through Sycamore east into St. Charles.

Robert Wilson was a lottery winner, a longtime employee of Barber-Greene Co. and then later Agco and Caterpillar, where he retired in 2000, according to the sheriff’s office. Robert was an active member of the Sycamore Moose Lodge and was listed as its treasurer at the time of his death. He graduated from a Tennessee high school and then from Kishwaukee College in Malta. When Robert was 35, he won $1 million in the Illinois Lucky Million Instant Lottery game when his name was drawn at the July 1988 Taste of Chicago. Since he was 18, he had served devotedly as an election judge, according to his obituary.

[ Autopsy records detail house of horror in brutal 2016 double homicide in rural Sycamore ]

Multiple Wilson family members are expected to be among the almost 50 witnesses prosecutors plan to call during the trial, court records show. Two people named Hurst also appear on a prepared witness list filed by lead defense attorney Chip Criswell of the DeKalb County Public Defender’s Office, records show: Craig Hurst, of Indianapolis and Laura Hurst, of Texas. Records did not specify their relation to Jonathan Hurst.

At trial, prosecutors will argue four counts of first-degree murder and one count of home invasion for Hurst. Authorities have said there was evidence that someone had forcibly entered the Wilson home. The Wilsons died from blunt force trauma, according to the DeKalb County Coroner’s Office.

Jonathan Hurst pleaded not guilty and has denied ever being in Sycamore. Police and prosecutors have said that they have evidence to show he was, according to court records. Authorities with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office previously said they’d devoted about 15,000 working hours chasing more than 1,300 leads in the 3 ½ years it took to find a suspect.

“The important point is, this is not a cold case,” now retired Sheriff Roger Scott said to Shaw Local in 2017, one year after the double homicide investigation opened.

Prosecutors are expected to present evidence in DNA samples collected from the Wilson home and cellphone geomapping data that allegedly puts Hurst’s cellphone in the area at the time of the killings. Patricia Wilson’s missing car was found near where Hurst used to live in Chicago nine days after the killings, police have said.

It’s not yet known if Hurst will testify in his own defense.

The trial could last until the end of January or possibly later depending on testimonies and cross-examinations, Assistant State’s Attorney Scott Schwertley said.