QUINCY (WGEM) - Timothy Bliefnick, the Quincy man convicted of murdering his estranged wife Rebecca Bliefnick, will officially remain behind bars for the rest of his life.
On Friday afternoon, the Appellate Court of Illinois Fourth District affirmed the conviction and sentencing that Bliefnick received in 2023.
This spring, Bliefnick, who is being lodged at Menard Correctional Center, filed an appeal that contained three arguments.
The three issues presented for review in the appeal included:
- Whether Bliefnick was denied his right to a fair trial when the court admitted a vast amount of inadmissible evidence under the “forfeiture of wrongdoing” doctrine, without regard for whether that evidence was relevant or otherwise admissible.
- Whether Bliefnick was denied his right to a fair trial when the prosecutor made representations to the jury of matters that were not in evidence.
- Whether Bliefnick was denied the right to a fair trial when former Judge Robert Adrian denied the defense’s Suggestion of Conflict and allowed Assistant State’s Attorney Josh Jones to remain as the prosecutor, while his potentially adverse testimony against Adrian was pending in a contemporaneous matter before the Judicial Inquiry Board.
The appeal contended that Judge Robert Adrian “had the opportunity to conserve judicial resources by addressing this conflict at the trial court level and recusing himself from the case, rather sealing even the suggestion of conflict away from public evaluation. He (Adrian) squandered that opportunity to do justice, as he did others, and it is left to this Court to provide the only remedy available. Thus, this Court should remand the case for a new trial before a judge that may restore the public’s faith in this trial’s outcome and the judiciary itself.”
The appeal contended the court erred in admitting a large number of hearsay statements “that were nothing more than propensity evidence and thus otherwise admissible. Both the court and defense counsel erred in failing to apply Illinois Rule of Evidence 401, which required the court to evaluate all issues of privilege before admitting any piece of evidence. These errors render the verdict unreliable, and the case should be remanded back for a new trial, without the inadmissible evidence.”
From the time of the filing, Adams County Assistant State’s Attorney Laura Keck, who prosecuted the case with then-lead trial attorney Josh Jones, was confident.
“I felt really good about it and that we had done a good case and that the evidence was so strong that nothing would be overturned,” Keck said on Friday afternoon. “However, every attorney will tell you that every once in a while, you’ll get a shocking opinion from the appellate court, so you just never know.”
In response to Bliefnick’s appeal regarding attorney-client privilege, the Appellate Court ruled: “Just as with the forfeiture by wrongdoing doctrine, defendant’s success in silencing Becky should not be rewarded by his use of her own privilege to frustrate the truth-seeking process looking into her death. It is true that Becky may have had specific information she preferred to remain confidential under ordinary circumstances, but a murder trial is not an ordinary circumstance. Indeed, in nearly every way, the jury has been made privy to the most intimate aspects of Becky’s life.”
The entire opinion from the Illinois Appellate Court at the bottom of this story.
“It’s something you constantly think about”
Keck was taking the dog for a walk when she found out that Bliefnick, now 41-years-old, would spend the rest of his life in the IDOC.
She was shocked the court’s opinion was handed down so quickly.
Moments later, Keck returned to the Adams County State’s Attorney’s Office to break the news to Becky Bliefnick’s mother.
“It was the best feeling in the world, it was probably as great a feeling as when the verdict came down because she just said, ‘Oh that’s such good news, thank you,’ and she was just laughing with joy,” Keck said. “She was so happy and she just said ‘Thank you thank you thank you, now can I go tell the rest of the family, I’m going to call all of them.’ "
Bliefnick was represented by Quincy-based defense attorney Casey Schnack.
Schnack said it Friday’s announcement wasn’t the outcome she was hoping for.
“It’s unfortunate and it’s not the outcome that I was hoping for for Tim, but again, the process works and I believe in the justice system and he has exhausted his rights as far as the appellate court is concerned,” she said. “That’s all you can ask for when you’re working for the defendant is that they’re given a fair shake.”
Bliefnick was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of home invasion on May 31, 2023. That August, he was sentenced to natural life in prison.
This story first appeared on WGEM.
