’48 Hours’ episode about murder of pregnant Morris Mountain woman and unborn baby airs this month – Shaw Local

Oregon – In 2020 Mt. The murder of the Morris woman will be the subject of the “48 Hours” episode airing Saturday, Nov. 30.

The episode will be about 37-year-old Matthew Plote. Found guilty of murdering Melissa Lamesch27, on November 25, 2020, just one day before Thanksgiving and two days before their baby was due.

Jurors deliberated for two hours on March 22 before finding Plote guilty. four counts of first degree murder; three counts of intentional murder of an unborn child; and one count each of residential arson, aggravated domestic battery and concealment of a homicidal death.

Judge John “Ben” Roe called it a “brutal crime.” Sentenced Plotte to life imprisonment on 27 June After hearing victim impact statements from Lamesch’s mother, father and sister, as well as arguments from attorneys.

Roe said he considered all the allegations and evidence and, in addition to the life sentence, sentenced Plote to 60 years in prison for the baby’s death and 15 years for setting fire to Lamesch’s home in an attempt to conceal the deaths. The sentences will be served simultaneously.

Mt. When Morris firefighters broke into his South Hannah Boulevard home around 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 25, 2020, Lamesch was found lying on the kitchen floor, not breathing, covered in soot and debris.

According to the firefighters’ statement, there was no electrical activity in his heart when he was dragged from the burning house and placed in the ambulance, and he was declared dead at 16.54.

During the trial, detectives accused Plote, a Carol Stream paramedic, of strangling Lamesch because he didn’t want the birth of his son to interfere with his “carefree playboy lifestyle.”

During the initial police interview on November 25, 2020, Plote told detectives that he wanted Lamesch to take care of the baby. Plote added that he was initially “not on board” but went to his home to “take care of things.”

Plote told police he stayed at Lamesch’s home for “about an hour” and that they talked at the kitchen table before moving to the couch to engage in what she described as consensual sex. He said he then left the house through the front door.

Plot chose not to take the stand during the jury trial.

Lamesch’s older sister, Cassie Baal, told jurors that she was speaking to her sister on the phone the day of her death when Plote appeared at the family’s childhood home.

“He said he would speed up the conversation and call me right away,” Baal said.

Prosecutors argued that Lamesch never called Baal back because Plote killed him and then set the house on fire.

Ogle County Assistant State’s Attorney Heather Kruse argued that Plote deliberately put the entire neighborhood at risk by setting the house on fire after killing Lamesch. He said the crimes were particularly “sick” because Plote worked in a profession where he was supposed to help people.

He argued for a life sentence and said the evidence at trial showed Lamesch died fighting for her life and the life of her baby.

A forensic scientist with the Illinois State Police Forensic Science Laboratory in Rockford testified that Plote’s DNA was found in fingernail scrapings taken from Lamesch’s right and left hands. He also said semen found in Lamesch’s vagina and cheek swabs taken from the dead baby matched Plote’s profile.

Forensic pathologists Dr. Mark Peters and Dr. Lamesch drowned before firefighters rescued him from his burning home, Amanda Youmans told jurors.

They testified that the abrasions on Lamesch’s face and scalp, as well as the bruises on her legs and thighs, occurred before she died, and that high levels of carbon monoxide were not found in Lamesch’s blood. There were no abnormalities in his “full-term male fetus.” Lamesch also had minimal thermal injuries, they testified.

Youmans said there were signs of strangulation on Lamesch’s neck, face, eyes and throat. Bleedings into the muscles in his neck were also caused by pressure applied to that area, and when he cleared soot and debris from Lamesch’s body, he discovered more injuries that he said were consistent with “blunt force.”

Those injuries were found on Lamesch’s forehead, head and temple and were consistent with “multiple blows to the head,” Youmans said. He said their injuries were consistent with “fighting back.”

Defense attorney Liam Dixon argued during Plote’s sentencing that his client had spent his entire career helping people as a paramedic and was also an Eagle Scout. He asked the court to consider Plote’s “zero criminal history” before making a decision.

Asked if Roe wanted to make a statement before sentencing, Plote said softly: “I share Melissa and Barrett’s pain and loss.”

Lamesch was a 2011 graduate of Oregon High School and an emergency medical technician at Trace Ambulance Service in Tinley Park. She returned to the family home in October 2020 and was scheduled to go into labor on 27 November 2020.

Crews from the CBS series filmed in Oregon and the Ogle County Judicial Center earlier this year. The newsmagazine, which focuses on crime and court issues, is expected to air on CBS stations at 9pm CST, following its 8pm episode.

“48 Hours” field producer Emily Wichick Hourihane said in an email that the show will later air on the CBS website and Paramount+.

Request for reconsideration of sentences rejected

In August, Dixon asked for Plote’s sentences to be reconsidered because the brutal nature of the crime should not be taken into account when weighing factors in Roe’s sentencing process.

Kruse disagreed. “We believe the court made the appropriate decision in determining the sentences,” he said, adding that the state claimed the killings were committed in a “cold, calculated and premeditated manner.”

Roe denied the motion, ruling that the sentences were appropriate given that Lamesch was “fighting for her life and that of her son” for four to six minutes when she was strangled to death.

Plote is now 337 miles south of Oregon, near St. He is an inmate at the Illinois Department of Corrections at the Menard Correctional Center in Menard, Illinois, south of St. Louis.

Court documents show he is in the process of appealing the sentence and guilty verdicts to the Illinois Court of Appeals. He is currently indigent and has been appointed as appellate advocate for the appeal process.