By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – A McLean County Judge has found a Tazewell County woman is fit to stand trial for her mother’s murder last summer at the Sugar Grove Nature Center in Funks Grove.
Judge Robert Freitag based his decision on a psychiatric evaluation of Christine Roush, 22, of Washington.
She’s accused of striking her mother, Teresa Poehlman, 47, of East Peoria, in the back of the head with a crowbar, strangling her, dragging Poehlman into the woods, and repeatedly stabbing her in the neck and chest on July 2.
In court, Roush’s lawyer told the judge the case is close to a resolution. She’s scheduled to appear in court again December 20.
Roush is one of two people charged with Poehlman’s murder.
The lawyer for Mathew Isbell, 22, of Marquette Heights claims in court filings that he witnessed the killing and was “merely a pawn” in Roush’s plan to murder her mother.
Court documents indicate Isbell told police about a third suspect, but there has been no further arrests.
Isbell has a December 15 court date.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at howard.packowitz@cumulus.com
