Husband takes stand for two hours, tells jury what Lohman Schmitt told him about sexual assault

QUINCY — When Tim Schmitt came home on the night of Nov. 9, 2021, he entered the home through a door in the garage that he noticed had been kicked in. When he went inside, he found his wife sitting on the floor crying. She said to him, “They raped me.”

Schmitt, the husband of Christine “Tina” Schmitt Lohman, was the prosecution’s first witness during the aggravated criminal sexual assault trial of Bradley Yohn on Tuesday in Adams County Circuit Court. 

Yohn, 36, is charged with home invasion with a dangerous weapon, home invasion predicated on criminal sexual assault, aggravated vehicular hijacking, aggravated criminal sexual assault with a weapon and residential burglary. He allegedly committed the crimes on Nov. 9, 2021, at the Schmitt home. He is defending himself in the trial with Todd Nelson providing standby counsel.

Testimony will resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Schmitt was on the stand for approximately two hours. He said he had been with Lohman Schmitt for 36 years, but they had only been married for two.

He told how he left the family business, American Builders Supply, at approximately 5 p.m. and drove to Farm & Home Supply to look for equipment for deer hunting season. He then drove to his home on North Bottom Road and saw the garage door open, his wife’s car missing and wheel tracks from a car in the front lawn.

A photo, shown to Schmitt during his testimony, taken inside the home showed a bloody quilt on which Lohman Schmitt was sitting. A knife made from a railroad spike and an aerosol can of carpet cleaner were nearby on the floor. Lohman Schmitt had said she was afraid the two people who had attacked her were going to come back to the house. Schmitt went into the bedroom and gave her a gun.

Schmitt then gave his version of what happened next, as told to him by his wife.

She said her car was having mechanical problems on Koch’s Lane when a man and a woman drove up. The man got out of his car and climbed in Lohman Schmitt’s car, with the woman following behind in her car. She drove to the North Bottoms and said the man made her take her top off so he could touch her breasts, then forced her to perform oral sex. She said she thought they were going to kill her.

Lohman Schmitt then told the man and woman she had jewelry and money at the house.

“(The man) said that if your husband’s there, I’m going to kill you both,” Schmitt recalled his wife saying.

Once they got to the house, Lohman Schmitt said the man and woman got into an argument. That allowed her to run into the house and lock the door, but a search for a handgun was unsuccessful. Schmitt said he recently had moved it to keep it away from grandchildren.

Lohman Schmitt told the man the jewelry was in a chest of drawers in the bedroom. When she told the man about a safe in the basement, she said he threw her down the stairs. The man then unsuccessfully tried to open the lock on the safe.

“She said the safe was wired to the police department, and now the police are going to be coming,” Schmitt said.

Lohman Schmitt then said the man took her back upstairs and raped her. After her husband came home, she eventually went to Blessing Hospital.

Karen Blackledge, Yohn’s alleged accomplice on the night of Nov. 9, 2021, received a 40-year sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections in April 2022. She pleaded guilty to home invasion and aggravated sexual assault charges.

Jones showed a series of photos to Schmitt. He identified them as jewelry and items taken from his wife, including a purse, a voter ID card, checks from the family business, car keys and a Star Trek pin she bought in Las Vegas. He later showed the objects to Schmitt during his testimony.

Jones tried to submit into evidence a rosary that Schmitt identified as belonging to his wife. However, Yohn objected. When Judge Roger Thomson asked for the grounds of his objection, Yohn said, “That’s my jewelry. That’s my rosary.”

Thomson allowed the rosary to be submitted into evidence.

When Yohn cross-examined Schmitt, many of his questions only repeated questions asked earlier by Jones, who objected with the phrase “asked and answered” on multiple occasions.

Yohn asked about the 911 call Schmitt made. He said it was from outside the house. 

“I went out to see if anybody else was coming back, and I called the police,” Schmitt said. “I called 911.”

“Out in your garage?” Yohn asked.

“Out in the garage,” Schmitt replied. 

“Mr. Schmitt, is it possible that that would be false information?” Yohn asked, eliciting a loud objection from Jones that Thomson sustained.

Yohn later asked if Tim remained in the garage after calling 911. He said he went back into the house and checked on his wife, then looked out the windows. 

“Are you sure you weren’t standing there holding her hand?” Yohn asked. Jones objected, and Thomson sustained.

Yohn asked what Schmitt did for his wife as they waited for police. After a long pause, Schmitt said, “I gave her a hug.”

Yohn later asked, “Is it true that initially your wife didn’t want to go to the hospital?” Schmitt said he didn’t remember what she said. Yohn noted only law enforcement, and no EMTs, were on the scene that night. Schmitt said he didn’t recall his wife denying medical services.

Yohn asked if Lohman Schmitt suffered from dementia or Alzheimer’s. Schmitt said no. Yohn asked if her memory was pretty good. Schmitt replied yes. “Maybe even spectacular?” Yohn said. Jones objected, and Thomson sustained.

Yohn asked Schmitt if his wife had said the female “in this criminal equation” was the worst of the two. Schmitt said she was, that she had threatened her and verbally abused her.

Yohn then asked, “In your eyes, what do you see is worse: the male or the female?” Jones objected and Thomson sustained.

Jaclyn Oglesby testimony

Jaclyn Oglesby, a sexual assault nurse examiner at Blessing Hospital, was the first to testify in the afternoon. She said Lohman Schmitt was “in shock” when she met with her on the night of the attack. She described bruising on her arms and hands, her buttocks and knees. 

Oglesby then explained significant injuries to Lohman Schmitt’s mouth, calling them chemical burns. She said Lohman Schmitt suffered three tears in her vagina, and an exam of her vagina was too painful. She said she performed a sexual assault kit that night.

Yohn questioned the description of some of the bruising in Oglesby’s report, disputing how “fresh” the bruises were. 

Dr. Ada Kagumba testimony

The final witness was Dr. Ada Kagumba, an obstetrician and gynecologist for the past 25 years. She met with Lohman Schmitt on Nov. 16, 2021.

“She appeared to be in shock,” Kagumba testified. “It was if she was watching something that had happened to her that she couldn’t believe had happened to her.”

During Yohn’s cross-examination, he asked about Lohman Schmitt’s vagina.

“I’m human being. I don’t have a vagina, obviously,” he said. “But the vaginal cavity is one of the quickest healing parts of the body. True?”

Kagumba said she did not know that to be true.

“You don’t know it to be true, but it does heal pretty quickly,” Yohn said.

Yohn then used a small Styrofoam coffee cup to describe something of similar size that could have been placed in Lohman Schmitt’s vagina.

“If somebody was violently penetrated by a cup, would that leave excessive marking?” Yohn asked. “And probably, most likely, not be almost healed a week later?”

“She wasn’t penetrated with a cup,” Kagumba shot back. “She was penetrated with a penis. Your penis.”