SPRINGFIELD — In a dramatic development, the federal trial of a woman charged with kidnapping a Decatur businessman was derailed because she is now accused of trying to orchestrate a murder-for-hire plot to kill the victim and his wife, along with the judge and a prosecutor in the case.
Court documents show the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service have been called in to investigate, with samples of handwriting sent to the FBI crime lab in Quantico, Virginia, for analysis.
Defendant Ademeko Maclin-Carney, 25, is named in court filings as the person trying to arrange the murders as well as suborn false witness testimony to support her alibi for the kidnapping.
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The kidnapping case itself dates to March 24, 2022 and targeted James "Ed" Good, owner of Good’s Floor Store, who was lured to a derelict Decatur home and abducted at gunpoint in a scheme to extort a $400,000 ransom from Good’s wife. He was bound and held for more than six hours but managed to escape.
Speaking to the Herald & Review on Wednesday, Good said he had been daring to hope the trial would go ahead this week and both he and wife might begin to look forward to moving on with their lives. Now, he said, they are faced with a new nightmare.
“Last night I didn't sleep worth a (expletive),” said Good, 48. “My stomach is up and down. My wife and I are a little worried that someone we don’t know could walk in the door and be like ‘Hey, buddy, how are ya? Are you Ed Good? And I’m like ‘Yeah, my name is Ed Good, how can I help you?’ And then it’s…” and he makes the sound of rapid gunfire.
“That’s scary,” he added.
Maclin-Carney’s 22-year-old brother Ausarian Carney was also charged in the kidnapping as the accomplice who wielded the gun after his sister blasted Good in the face with pepper spray. But Carney is not named as being part of the subsequent murder plot.
NEW ALLEGATIONS
The trial in the kidnapping case had been scheduled to begin in Springfield on Feb. 26 but was then delayed to Tuesday.
It now turns out the delays were prompted by the emerging discovery of the new allegations which, in an ironic twist, have already prompted Maclin-Carney’s attorney, Daniel Noll, to file a motion calling for the disqualification of the kidnapping trial judge on the basis that a threatened jurist can’t be seen as conducting a fair trial. Noll said the same goes for federal prosecutor Bryan Freres who was also targeted in the murder plot.
Legal changes on the federal side are already underway, with original trial judge Colleen R. Lawless now off the case and replaced by fellow judge Stephen McGlynn. There is no new date for the trial yet and, in any case, it looks like Maclin-Carney will soon be facing a whole new series of charges.
Noll, her attorney, spells out the fresh peril confronting his client in the motion filed requesting the removal of the threatened judge: “This case (the original kidnapping) as well as the addition of potential new charges based on this alleged conduct could potentially lead to life imprisonment for Ms. Maclin-Carney,” he stated.
“The defendant should not have a fear that her trial and/or sentence is conducted by a court that has bias against her.”
Further court filings describe how the alleged murder plot was discovered. On Feb. 26, the original trial start date, a “confidential source” in the Macon County Jail where Maclin-Carney was being held had asked to speak to a Decatur Police Department detective. The source handed over several letters which had been given to the source by Maclin-Carney with instructions to smuggle them out to various co-conspirators.
“All of the letters save one appear to be defendant Maclin-Carney instructing various potential defense witnesses how to testify to substantiate the defendants’ purported alibi defense,” the court filings said.
“One letter, however, simply contains three names: the two victims (Good and his wife) and a prosecutor. According to the confidential source, Maclin-Carney instructed them to give the names to the defendant’s (co-conspirators) with the intent to have those people ‘disappear’ if the defendant got an adverse outcome at the trial.”
FEDERAL INVESTIGATION
The FBI and the U.S. Marshals were then called in and detailed analysis carried out of phone calls made by Maclin-Carney, which are recorded by the jail, some of the calls having been made using other inmates’ phone accounts.
“In a series of several calls, it appears defendant Maclin-Carney and (various named co-conspirators) have made a payment to a ‘scary’ individual out of Chicago, and that if this individual does their job, the trial either will not happen or the two victims and/or a prosecutor will be the subject of retaliation,” according to the court filing.
“In another call, defendant Maclin-Carney suggested ‘that man’ (which the government believes was a reference to the victim), a prosecutor and the judge will all ‘fall on their ass one by one’ as a result of the payments. In another call, Maclin-Carney is requesting (a co-conspirator) to come up with more money related to this plot.”
Defense attorney Noll states in the court filings that he has no doubt the prosecution side is taking the murder-for-hire claims seriously.
“According to the government’s motion, the capacity to carry out this threat is more than real and has required increased security for the targets of the threats,” Noll writes.
Maclin-Carney and her brother both have claimed they were in Bloomington when the kidnapping happened and copies of letters listed as exhibits appear to show her trying to coach witnesses from her jail cell.
One hand-written letter, original spelling left intact, says: “U woke up; I was there... I left 2 (obscured) Bloomington too get my kids. U don’t remember (expletive) else.
“Please be a testifying witness. I’ll pay.”