WHITESIDE COUNTY--A pretrial hearing is scheduled for January 8 for the Morrison teenager accused of killing her mother. This comes after a Whiteside County circuit court judge ruled to throw out the teens previous confession.
The hearing will be Anna Schroeder's first time in court since a judge ruled that her confession was improperly obtained by police.
A judge has ordered a portion of 17-year-old Anna Schroeder's statements to be thrown out after she told police that she didn't want to talk anymore, this includes her confession. The documents state Schroeder was interrogated for approximately 30 minutes before she stated: "I don't want to talk anymore". The total time was around two hours.
According to court documents, any statements made by Schroeder before she says "I don't want to talk anymore", can be used if the case goes to trial.
"However, the statements that were made after, including her confession, "are determined to be involuntary and are, thus, inadmissible and must be suppressed."
The judge in the case Trish Senneff, says Anna Schroeder's confession to shooting her mother in the head was improperly obtained and will not be allowed at her murder trial.
She says investigators should have stopped questioning the 15-year-old once she told them 'I don`t want to talk anymore.' the confession came after that statement.
Schroeder was charged as an adult in the July 2017 killing of her mother, 53-year-old Peggy Schroeder. The woman’s body was found in a burning home in Morrison, 130 miles west of Chicago.