A man charged in a 1999 killing in Aurora argued in Kane County Court on Tuesday that incriminating statements he made in the case should be thrown out because he did not have legal representation.
Nathaniel Edwards, 44, a convicted killer who faces the death penalty if he is convicted of strangling David Suter with a telephone cord Jan. 22, 1999, five months after being released from prison. Suter, 56, employed Edwards to make home repairs weeks before the killing.
Edwards’ wife, Kattye, is expected to be a primary prosecution witness, also has a case pending against her for possession of stolen goods, allegedly taken from the bungled burglary that prosecutors say led to Suter’s death.
In his testimony Tuesday, Edwards told Judge Donald C. Hudson in a pretrial hearing that he had asked investigators several times on Feb. 3, 1999, whether an attorney had come to the Aurora Police station, where Edwards was being held, to speak with him. Investigators said they were unsure.
“I wanted to make a statement to the facts of the case and I wanted a defense attorney and a state’s attorney there so I could get to the bottom of this,” Edwards testified of his conversation with investigators. He added that he again asked to speak with investigators the next morning after Bond Court, where he also lacked legal representation.
Aurora detectives tape-recorded the Feb. 4 interview and concluded it when Edwards indicated that he wanted to talk with an attorney. But, after they announced the interview was ending, they said, Edwards incriminated himself in the murder.
“I see that I’m being used in this,” Edwards said in the taped interview. “To make like I’m the only one involved . . . and it’s not that way. There’s other people that are involved and that also should be charged.”
Defense attorneys have said little about their strategy other than that Edwards was not involved but is being framed by the others.
Kane County Assistant Public Defender Janet Russeth, who is representing Edwards, contends that Ricky Taylor, who is alleged to be drug trafficker, bartered goods stolen from Suter to negotiate with prosecutors. Taylor waited several hours after obtaining the stolen goods, Russeth said, then contacted his attorney and said he would submit the items to police only if they agreed not to charge him in the murder.
Prosecutor Jim Guagliardo said evidence points to Edwards acting alone, focusing on a statement by his wife in which she recalled Edwards retrieving a phone cord from a closet in the couple’s apartment before leaving alone.
Edwards was convicted of the 1981 murder of an Aurora Township used car dealer and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was released in August 1998.
The trial is set for May 15.
