Judge Delays First Nutter Murder Trial

With the Lake County State's Attorney still gathering evidence in the Collin Nutter murder case, Judge Victoria Rossetti moved Monday's scheduled trial of Philip Vatamoniuc to August 26 today in Lake County Criminal Court.

Assistant State's Attorney Reggie Mathews gave Vatamoniuc's lawyer, Robert Ritacca, over 245 pages of evidence but said there was more to come. “We still have 445 pages of documents to review and 300 pages of reports,” Mathews said. “We’ll get it to him by the end of the day.”

Mathews is still waiting for evidence from Cook County being gathered by the law enforcement agencies there. Nutter’s body was found in Wilmette. “They had a copying snafu,” he said.

Rossetti asked Ritacca, who has been demanding a fast trial, if he would be ready to begin trial Monday. He was reluctant. “I’d be putting myself in an untenable position but I want it as soon as possible,” Ritacca said.

Vatamoniuc’s trial is now set to start at the same time as one of his codefendants, Michael Coffee. Benjamin Schenk, who has been identified as the person who actually shot Nutter, is scheduled to go to trial Oct. 7.

At the same time Ritacca sought permission to take a polygraph of Vatamoniuc to help show his client's statements were the accurate ones made to investigators rather than what was said by Schenk and Coffee. He believes this will show Vatamoniuc was not part of the crime.

“They have nothing,” Ritacca said of the prosecution evidence. “Mathews already said (Schenk) was the shooter. He (Vatamoniuc) was not part of the armed robbery, he was not a part of the home invasion, he was not part of the plan.”

Ritacca has asked Rossetti to try Vatamoniuc separately from the other defendants and Mathews said he will not oppose the request. “They are antagonistic,” Ritacca said of Vatamoniuc, Schenk and Coffee. “They have made conflicting statements.”

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