by Beth Hundsdorfer
News-Democrat

Published: October 12, 2009

The vehicular homicide trial of a former Illinois State Police trooper involved in a high-speed crash that killed two Collinsville sisters is set to begin March 22 -- two years after he was relieved of his duties.

Matt Mitchell, 31, of Carlyle, faces two counts of reckless homicide and two counts of reckless driving in deaths of Jessica Uhl, 18, and Kelli Uhl, 13, and the injuries to Kelly Marler and his then-pregnant wife, Christine Marler, of Fayetteville, in November 2007.

Mitchell gained custody of his daughter July 13 after a court found the child's mother had "chronic substance abuse" and "an inability to control depression" that culminated with a suicide attempt, according to Clinton County court records.

In the six years since Kristie’s death, no one had ever asked us that question. For a brief moment, I wondered how he knew to ask that question. Yet, I already knew the answer because Glenn’s caring nature for people is so transparent.

The child's 26-year-old mother is allowed supervised visits with the 6-year-old girl.

Mitchell continues to receive a paycheck from the Illinois State Police, earning $69,984 a year.

An Illinois State Police internal affairs investigation found that Mitchell was driving his 2006 Impala squad car east on Interstate 64 at 126 mph in heavy, day-after Thanksgiving traffic while engaging in "other activities" when he lost control of his car and crossed the median near Illinois 158.

Prosecutors haven't specified what those other activities were, but a lawsuit filed by the Marlers revealed an Illinois State Police report that showed Mitchell was on the phone with his child's mother and
sending e-mails to another trooper in the minutes before the crash.

Contact reporter Beth Hundsdorfer at
bhundsdorfer@bnd.com or 239-2570.

Comments

The above article and comments are archived on BND.com. PursuitSAFETY posted the last nine comments out of 115:

scaupmaster wrote on 10/13/2009 12:59:12 PM:
Dang, $70,000 a year to sit at home and take it easy. Not a bad dig!

boots wrote on 10/13/2009 12:58:43 PM:
Just curious if anyone knows if the mother of this child is the girlfriend that the newspaper said called Mitchell right before the accident? I remember reading he had a girlfriend that had his child, could it be one and the same? If so, does that mean the State of Illinois welfare office was paying WIC, Food Stamps, etc. for this illegitimate child? Enquiring minds want to know. Could this be welfare fraud? Maybe he should be in jail for fraud if that is the situation? If the child's mother is the person who called him, maybe her problems are related to guilt. Maybe she has a conscience.

userrich1 wrote on 10/13/2009 12:29:39 PM:
tds0126, thank the Good Lord that you weren't a victim of this maniac. It's a crying shame that this killer wasn't the one who died instead of those innocent girls.

tds0126 wrote on 10/13/2009 12:20:36 PM:
My family and I witnessed this terrible "accident" two years ago and made one of the 911 calls in to report it. It was horrific and those two innocent girls' families deserve to have this guy locked up. Traffic was VERY heavy that day I can assure you and he had absolutely no business going that fast. He should go to jail and not be getting paid..end of story. He is very lucky he didn't kill more people that day. I thank God we were not a few cars ahead of where we were or we would have been hit too. SEND HIM TO JAIL.

kcstillalive wrote on 10/13/2009 12:18:56 PM:
Police should not be above the law..period!!

userrich1 wrote on 10/13/2009 11:11:14 AM:
Katydue2 must be the girlfriend of this murderer. Who else in their sane mind can defend this cold-blooded sociopathic killer? She says she has seen cops "going just as fast many times." I've been driving for over 35 years, all over the country, and have NEVER ONCE seen a cop driving 126 mph! "Leave the guy alone so he can go back to work." Oh my goodness...!!!

nomoretaxes wrote on 10/13/2009 10:58:53 AM:
Yeah Boots- FACT- our judicial system failed the Uhl sisters- FACT- this idiot should have already been convicted and behind bars. FACT FACT FACT. What is wrong with our judicial system people??? Why does it take years to convict scum like this?

boots wrote on 10/13/2009 9:32:47 AM:
BOTTOM LINE ON MITCHELL: He was driving 126 MPH (FACT), it wasn't the first time he had a stupid accident while on the job (FACT), he killed two sisters and injured another family(FACT), he's guilty as Hell (FACT), he was talking on phone and on his computer as he was driving according to the news (FACT), he used the excuse of responding to a minor accident that was already attended to (FACT), he shows no remorse by his "party" conversations (FACT)......I'm sure there are a lot more FACTS. Duh, how can anyone defend this guy? How could any attorney want to defend this guy? How can he hold his head up in dignity? Wonder why the child's mother has a substance abuse problem and is/was suicidal (BND STORY)? Does she have some kind of guilt?

boots wrote on 10/13/2009 9:26:06 AM:
Just had a thought....wonder what Mitchell is doing with his time. Does he volunteer at his child's school? Scary thought isn't it that the law would allow a child killer in a school to volunteer?

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