Weeks after being returned to Kane County from the Chester Mental Health Center, Quentin Moore faces another hearing to determine his ability to stand trial on Aurora murder charges from more than a decade ago.
Moore, 35, spent about eight months in Illinois Department of Human Services custody after Kane County Judge Linda Abrahamson decided earlier this year that the former Aurora man was unfit to stand trial. The March ruling indicated a belief Moore could be restored to fitness within a year through treatment at the DHS facility, according to court records, and Kane County Jail records show Moore returned in November. Evaluations and other reports related to his stay at Chester have been sealed in his court file.
Abrahamson will preside soon over another hearing in the years-long effort to sort out the state of Moore’s mental health and put him on track to be tried on one of three murders he is accused of committing. Moore, already serving a 23-year prison sentence for attempted murder, was charged in 2007 with three murders – the 2005 beating death of Jorge Caro and the 2001 killings of Larry Postelwaite and Sharon Paulette – as part of the Operation First Degree Burn indictments that led to multiple arrests in Aurora cold case murders. Prosecutors have elected to try Moore for Caro’s death first.
Moore’s saga has involved at least eight judges. Several different attorneys have represented him over the last nine years, with nearly all of them raising questions about Moore’s ability to assist in his defense. Previous fitness hearings have led to Moore being judged unfit and fit at various times.
In 2013, jurors deemed him fit after a multi-day trial which featured 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.
The case has also been dotted by Moore filing multiple handwritten motions alleging poor medical care and other mistreatment, as well as a claim state officials owe him lottery winnings. Moore attacked his attorney in court during jury selection in 2010, while, at other times, he has refused to enter the courtroom for hearings.
Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News