Yohn attorney files motion claiming ineffective assistance of post-trial counsel, motion for new trial

QUINCY — A court-appointed attorney for Bradley Yohn, who received a 130-year sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections 11 months ago, has filed a motion claiming ineffective assistance of post-trial counsel and another motion asking for a new trial.

A six-page motion filed Aug. 9 in Adams County Circuit Court by Mark Wykoff of the Wykoff Law Office in Springfield said Todd Nelson, former Chief Public Defender for Adams County, provided ineffective assistance of counsel and Yohn was deprived of his constitutional right. 

Nelson represented Yohn during the sentencing phase of the trial. He was appointed as “standby counsel” by Judge Roger Thomson during the trial itself.

Wykoff claimed that to preserve an issue for appeal, the issue must be both raised by an objection during the trial and placed in a post-trial motion. 

“The chief public defender was physically present for a substantial period of the pretrial proceedings … and the entirety of (Yohn’s) jury trial,” Wykoff wrote. “While (Yohn) was a pro se litigant during these phases, it should have been abundantly clear to counsel that (Yohn) was passionate about raising perceived error, making objections thereto, often seeking reconsideration of adverse rulings, making it clear that he would be seeking review of the denial of trial-court relief on appeal. 

“In that post-trial, (Nelson) failed to reduce those preserved errors to a post-trial motion, now subjecting those preserved errors to the near-impossible-to-overcome standard of review of plain error. (Nelson) deprived (Yohn) of the effective assistance of counsel during the post-trial phase of the proceedings. After all, the right to counsel entails more than mere representation by an attorney. It includes the right to effective assistance of counsel.”

A 13-page motion filed Aug. 9 in Adams County Circuit Court by Wykoff listed 82 errors made during Yohn’s trial. Among the errors listed were denials on 21 dates of Yohn’s motions to:

• Dismiss the case based on speedy trial rules.
• Provide a bill of particulars.
• Suppress cellphone data.
• Disclose discovery to the defense.
• Provide memoranda of witness statements.
• Provide standby counsel.
• Disclose a state rebuttal witness.
• Suppress or exclude testimony.
• Continue.
• Rule ineffective assistance of counsel.
• Ask for recusal of the judge and a motion to substitute the judge.
• Release property.
• Provide additional psychiatric history in discovery.
• Disclose medical records.
• Obtain funds for independent DNA/fingerprint analysis.
• Obtain funds for a digital forensics expert.
• Obtain funds for a private investigator.
• Obtain funds for an expert in bruising.
• Obtain funds for an expert OBGYN.
• Force prosecuting attorneys to “abide by rules, procedures and laws set forth for humanity and judicial systems.
• Provide a solution for Yohn to be retrained in court.
• Change venue.
• Allowing extended media coverage.

“(Yohn) respectfully prays that this honorable court set aside the verdict herein and enter a judgment notwithstanding the verdict of the court or a reversal without remand, entering a judgment for the defendant or, in the alternative, for the entry or an order granting the defendant a new trial, vacating the verdict herein and the judgment entered herein,” Wykoff wrote.

A 10-man, two-woman jury determined on July 17, 2023, that Yohn was guilty of the crimes he committed on Nov. 9, 2021, at the home of Christine “Tina” Lohman Schmitt. She died 33 days after the attack on Dec. 12, 2021.

Thomson gave Yohn 30-year sentences for home invasion, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated vehicular hijacking. He gave Yohn 40 years for aggravated criminal sexual assault with a weapon. Counts for home invasion and residential burglary were merged into the other counts.

During the sentencing, Thomson called Yohn “the most reprehensible person ever before me” during his career in law.

Yohn proclaimed his innocence when making a statement of allocution during his sentencing, telling members of Lohman Schmitt’s family, “I did not hurt your mother or grandmother. I did not do any of that. I wasn’t part of this thing. I was not there. There’s a lot more to this than y’all know. I’m not guilty of this at all.”

Yohn is serving each sentence consecutively in the Lawrence Correctional Center in Sumner, 65 miles from Evansville, Ind.