Trial begins for Malta man charged with killing Mt. Morris woman and her unborn baby

OREGON – A Malta man accused of killing a Mt. Morris woman and her unborn baby in 2020 waived his right to a 12-person jury Monday, opting for six people to decide his fate.

Matthew T. Plote, 36, is accused of killing Melissa Lamesch, 27, and her unborn baby on Nov. 25, 2020, and then setting fire to her home in Mt. Morris to conceal their deaths.

He faces four counts of first-degree murder, three counts of intentional homicide of an unborn child and one count each of residential arson, aggravated domestic battery and concealment of a homicidal death.

Plote has been held at the Ogle County Correctional Center on $10 million bond since his March 9, 2022, arrest. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has appeared for multiple hearings at the Ogle County Judicial Center as his case proceeds through the court system.

Firefighters found Lamesch laying on her kitchen floor. She and her baby were pronounced dead at the scene. Her baby was due Nov. 27, 2020. She was a 2011 graduate of Oregon High School and an emergency medical technician at Trace Ambulance Service in Tinley Park.

At the start of the trial Monday morning, Plote’s defense team, Liam Dixon and John Kopp of Sycamore, informed Judge John “Ben” Roe that their client wanted a six-person jury to hear testimony at his trial.

Roe said it was Plote’s right to waive a 12-person jury and questioned him to make sure he was making the decision “knowingly and voluntarily.”

“Mr. Plote, as a defendant, this is your decision to make,” Roe told Plote. “This fundamental right is yours to make. The court will not express an opinion as to that right.”

Kopp said he and Dixon had discussed the waiver with Plote.

“This is your decision solely?” asked Roe, to which Plote replied “yes.”

“You knowingly and voluntarily waive your right to a 12-person jury to a six-person jury?” Roe asked.

“Yes,” Plote replied.

Ogle County State’s Attorney Mike Rock said he learned of the motion asking for the waiver before jury selection was slated to begin.

“We were just informed this morning,” said Rock. “I want it acknowledged that there has been no offer made and no offer was sought by the defense.”

Roe verified with Plote that he had signed a written waiver reducing the number of jurors from 12 to 6 and the selection process began mid-morning.

By 4:20 p.m., the jury – comprised of four women and two men plus two alternates – had been selected and sworn in.

In opening arguments, Assistant State’s Attorney Allison Huntley said prosecutors would prove Plote strangled Lamesch and then set her home on fire to conceal the deaths.

“When Melissa Lamesch woke up on Nov. 25, 2020, she woke up excited,” Huntley said. “Motherhood was at her doorstop.”

But, Huntley said, Plote, who was the baby’s father, also showed up on Lamesch’s doorstep that day. “He brutally attacked her, strangling her to death and her beautiful baby boy,” Huntley said. “Then he covered it up, setting her home on fire.”

Huntley said Lamesch’s labor was scheduled to be induced in two days.

Dixon countered that Huntley’s claims would not be supported by evidence.

“What she told you is not evidence,” said Dixon, claiming that prosecutors were going to ask jurors to make an inference. “Inference is not evidence. The evidence that Matthew Plote committed a crime is not there.”

The trial is scheduled to continue at 9 a.m. Tuesday and run through Friday.

Roe denied a defense motion asking the trial be moved from Ogle County due to pretrial publicity.