Saying prosecutors didn’t meet their burden to show Quentin Moore has been restored to trial fitness, Kane County Judge Linda Abrahamson recently ordered the 35-year-old suspect in three Aurora deaths to return to treatment at a state facility.
“The defendant is making progress and should continue original treatment plan,” Abrahamson wrote in a court order, which indicated Moore would be sent back to the Chester Mental Health Center.
Moore’s mental health has been a focal point of his two pending Aurora murder cases charged in 2007 as part of the Operation First Degree Burn sweep that involved multiple arrests in unsolved killings. He is accused in the 2005 beating death of Jorge Caro and the 2001 killings of Larry Postelwaite and Sharon Paulette. A previous conviction for attempted murder put Moore in prison on a 23-year sentence, which he’s been serving since 2008, records show.
Abrahamson is one of at least eight judges to rule on Moore’s ability to assist in his defense in nearly a decade of court proceedings, some of which have been disrupted by Moore’s behavior. That includes a 2010 courtroom incident in which he attacked his attorney, one of many to represent him over the years, during jury selection. In 2013, a jury deemed him fit after a multiday trial that included a doctor’s assessment that Moore might have pretended to be delusional. Moore’s attorney at the time countered by describing Moore’s paranoid behavior and feelings.
Abrahamson deemed him unfit in early 2016 and sent him to Chester, where he spent eight months before the most recent hearings. An update on his progress is expected during a Feb. 16 hearing.
Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
