Christopher Vaughn's Slain Wife's Emails Up For Grabs

Attorneys will argue over allowing emails written by the slain wife of alleged murderer Christopher Vaughn at the Oswego man's trial.

Vaughn was charged with gunning down not only his wife, 34-year-old Kimberly Vaughn, but also their three children — Blake, 8, Cassandra, 11, and Abigayle, 12 — in June 2007.

Christopher Vaughn, 36, claims that it was actually his wife who shot their children to death, and then put a bullet in his leg before he fled to safety. Kimberly Vaughn then turned the gun on herself and took her own life, according to her husband's story.

Christopher Vaughn's wife and children were killed on the Interstate 55 Frontage Road outside Channahon and near Shorewood. The family was heading to a Springfield waterpark.

Prosecutors are trying to get the emails entered as evidence in order to show that Kimberly Vaughn was not in a suicidal state of mind, as her husband insists. Defense attorneys are trying to keep the emails away from the eyes of a jury.

Vaughn's previous attorneys, John Rogers of St. Louis and Gerald Kielian of Joliet, produced the court papers making a case against allowing the emails.

Those two lawyers quit the case in May after Governor Quinn put an end to the death penalty, cutting the attorneys off from an essentially limitless pipeline of state money paid through the Illinois Capital Litigation Fund.

Vaughn is now represented by George Lenard, an attorney with a private practice in Joliet who also works as a public defender. Lenard is being assisted by full-time public defenders.

Judge Daniel Rozak set an Oct. 5 date for the email issue to be argued.