But after being admonished by the judge and sent into an isolation room to cool down, Wallace returned to plead guilty to all the charges against him – including first-degree murder, concealing a homicide, attempted murder, aggravated battery, assault with a deadly weapon and attempted escape.

He also agreed to a sentence of natural life plus 50 years in prison, which was handed down Friday.

When McLean County Judge Scott Drazewski asked Wallace whether he understood that his plea would keep him behind bars for the remainder of his life, Wallace replied, “Yeah, can’t wait.”
(AP via Sun Herald)

What a fitting ending to the bizarre behavior that Maurice Wallace showed during the trial. At least its over and no one will hear from him again. Hopefully.

A McLean County judge rules authorities will rely on jail and prison records to determine whether a man accused of killing a 21-year-old college student is fit to stand trial.

Maurice Wallace is refusing to cooperate with a court-appointed psychiatrist. Wallace also didn’t participate in today’s status hearing in the death of Olamide Adeyooye (oh-LAH’-mee-day ah-day-YOH’-yay).

(WQAD)

Acting disrespectful will not get you out of a trial on insanity, it will however not make many points with the jury.

Upset with his attorney and acting belligerent, accused killer Maurice Wallace today demanded that a McLean County judge give him a speedy trial on charges that he murdered Illinois State University Olamide Adeyooye.

Wallace, 27, walked into the courtroom and spit on the floor moments before he told Judge Scott Drazewski he wanted to be tried on all his cases as soon as possible.

The judge and bailiffs reacted as if they didn’t see what Wallace had done, but courtroom spectators let out a collective gasp.

Maurice Wallace’s comments:

“We ain’t got nothing to talk about. What do we have to talk about?” Wallace said gesturing toward Smith. He then looked back to Drazewski and said, “My request is that all these matters go to trial ASAP. I want a speedy trial.”

Maurice Wallace has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Olamide Adeyooye

McLean County State’s Attorney William Yoder has asked the state appellate prosecutor’s office to assist with the case against Wallace, 27, of Normal, The Pantagraph has learned.

Parkinson is part of the state’s prosecution team preparing for the Maurice LaGrone Jr. triple-murder trial set to begin Feb. 21 in McLean County. LaGrone and former girlfriend Amanda Hamm of Clinton are accused of drowning Hamm’s three young children in Clinton Lake in September 2003.

Maurice Wallace has been charged with three counts of murder in the death of Olamide Adeyooye.

Wallace stands accused of the death of Adeyooye, a 21-year-old ISU student who disappeared from her apartment Oct. 13. Police found Adeyooye’s body Oct. 21 in a burned-down chicken house in rural Mississippi.

A man pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that he killed an Illinois State University student missing for more than a week before her badly burned body was found in the rubble of a Mississippi chicken house.

Maurice Wallace is charged with three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of concealing a homicide and one count of theft of a motor vehicle.

Prosecutors allege Wallace left a bloody fingerprint in Adeyooye’s apartment and that personal belongings of his were found along with Adeyooye’s keys in a rental car Wallace had when he was arrested Oct. 20 in Atlanta on unrelated charges. Adeyooye’s car was later found abandoned in Atlanta.

Just hours before her death, Wallace told someone over the telephone that he was depressed and felt like killing someone to become a martyr and get his name in the news, according to prosecutors.

Circuit Judge Scott Drazewski told Wallace he faces up to 60 years in prison on each murder count, but the penalty could be extended to natural life if a jury determines the crime was brutal and heinous.

Prosecutors say additional charges could be filed that would make Wallace eligible for the death penalty.

Wallace, who is being held in the McLean County Jail in lieu of more than $2 million bond, is scheduled to appear in court again Jan. 6.

Indictment Issued in Adeyooye Case

An Illinois grand jury has indicted a man accused of killing a college student there and then burning her body in Newton County, Miss.

That indictment was issued Wednesday by a grand jury in Normal, Ill., where Olamide Adeyooye was a student at Illinois State University.

Maurice Wallace of normal was indicted on charges of first degree murder, concealing a homicide and motor vehicle theft.

Investigators say Wallace killed Adeyooye in October, then drove to Lake, Miss., where he burned her body in a chicken house that was being used for storage.

BLOOMINGTON — A 27-year-old man will be charged today with murder in the death of 21-year-old student Olamide Adeyooye.

“Maurice Wallace is today being charged with three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of concealing a homicide and theft of a motor vehicle,” McLean County State’s Attorney Bill Yoder said. “The investigation is ongoing, and additional counts could be forthcoming at a later date.”

(full story)

According to reports (AP), Olamide Adeyooye, was murdered in her apartment and then driven to Mississippi where her body was later found in a burned chicken coop.

But according to court papers, the woman was killed in her apartment on the day she was last seen. Wallace tried to clean blood from the floor of her apartment, then put her body in her car and left the area, the court papers said.

Adeyooye’s badly burned body was found Oct. 21 in Mississippi when the chicken coop’s owner was cleaning up from a fire four days earlier. She was later identified through dental records.

Authorities said two autopsies failed to pinpoint the cause of death, but they will seek another autopsy and further forensic tests.

The slain woman’s father welcomed the charges. “He should pay for it,” Abiodun Adeyooye said in a telephone interview from his home in Maryland.

(full story)

Suspect was banned from campus

In an unusual move, Illinois State University officials considered the man named as a suspect in Olamide Adeyooye’s death to be a threat and banned him from campus two months before she died.

Police officers handed a letter Aug. 17 to Maurice L. Wallace, 27, who was not an ISU student, that said he was not welcome on campus.

The letter from Helen Mamarchev, vice president of student affairs, followed reports in the last five years that Wallace was kicked out of several buildings, banned from specific areas of campus and accused of theft and harassment on separate occasions. ‘

“I am taking this action based on serious allegations pending against you that suggest that your presence on this campus constitutes a threat to the members of the Illinois State University community,” Mamarchev’s letter says.

The letter adds if Wallace is found on ISU property, he’d be “subject to arrest for criminal trespass.” No such charge has been filed against Wallace since the letter was written.

The AP also added that Wallace briefly worked at the university but was banned from campus for inappropriate conduct.

Wallace, who worked briefly at the university as a food service worker several years ago, was banned from the campus in August, university spokesman Jay Groves said.

Wallace allegedly made inappropriate sexual comments to students and employees, Groves said. He was banned from the campus recreation center in 2001 because of similar incidents.

NBC5: Murder Charges Announced In Student’s Death

Police had named Wallace as a suspect last month in Adeyooye’s disappearance and death. Her body was found Oct. 21 in Mississippi when the chicken coop’s owner was cleaning up rubble from a fire four days earlier. She was later identified through dental records.

Wallace, who lived in the same block as Adeyooye, has been in custody since Oct. 20, when he was arrested at an Atlanta shopping center on an unrelated warrant from Normal. Adeyooye’s car was found abandoned in Atlanta on Oct. 30. Wallace waived extradition from Georgia and has been held in the McLean County Jail in lieu of $540,000 bond on the unrelated theft, aggravated battery and disorderly conduct charges.

ISU officials say they will confer Adeyooye’s degree and present it to her parents.

Normal police Lt. Mark Kotte said 27-year-old Maurice Lashon Wallace of Normal “is involved or has knowledge” of what happened to Olamide Adeyooye, based on interviews and evidence collected in an investigation that spans three states. Kotte declined to elaborate, saying that information could jeopardize the investigation.

No charges have been filed against Wallace in connection with the death of Adeyooye, a 21-year-old student from the Chicago suburb of Berkeley.

Fiends of Wallace and Adeyooye have made the connection that the two knew each other and that they lived in the same apartment complex.

Wallace has been in custody since a week after Adeyooye disappeared when he was picked up at an Atlanta shopping center on a warrant in an unrelated identity theft case in Normal. Kotte said the identity theft case involved multiple victims, but he declined to say if Adeyooye was one of them.

Friends say Adeyooye and Wallace knew each other and that he had been to her off-campus apartment. Kotte declined comment on any connection between the two.

Seems that Maurice Lashon Wallace has a past history of convictions.

Wallace was convicted Sept. 6, 2001, of entering a taxi and striking the driver. A memorandum in a court file indicates late in the same month, he bought a one-way ticket to Heathrow Airport in London, turned himself over to immigration officials and asked for political asylum.

Hat Tip: festa

The missing car of a slain Illinois State University student has been found in Atlanta, where police say a man they may want to question is awaiting extradition to central Illinois on unrelated theft charges, authorities said Monday.

Normal police Lt. Mark Kotte declined to characterize the 27-year-old man as a suspect in the disappearance and slaying of 21-year-old Olamide Adeyooye, whose badly burned body was found Oct. 21 in a central Mississippi chicken house.

Adeyooye’s green 1996 Toyota Corolla, missing since she disappeared, was found abandoned Sunday in a residential neighborhood on Atlanta’s southwest side, Kotte said. Authorities are processing the car for fingerprints, weapons and other evidence such as hair or fibers, he said.

KWQC TV6; Slain ISU student’s missing car found in Atlanta

Authorities say he lived on the same block as Adeyooye, who was last seen on October 13th in the central Illinois city where she went to school.

Police are processing the car for evidence and awaiting results of forensic tests they hope will determine Adeyooye’s cause of death and where she was killed.

Why do so many of these cases just start sounding familiar? ISU student’s slaying case may expand to Atlanta

A 27-year-old Normal man arrested last week in Atlanta by the FBI on charges of felony theft is a possible person of interest to police investigating the disappearance and death of Illinois State University student Olamide E. Adeyooye.
Maurice Lashon Wallace was arrested on a McLean County warrant issued earlier this month.

Wallace was charged Oct. 10 with disorderly conduct for threatening to harm a woman and refusing to leave her apartment and also for theft involving less than $300.

On Oct. 20, he was charged with felony theft, $300 and $10,000.

In May 2001 Wallace was arrested in Normal for unlawful vehicular invasion and criminal trespass. He was convicted on the trespass charge and served time in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Related posts:
Arrested man might be linked to slaying of Olamide Adeyooye

Authorities say they found blood after search of man’s Illinois apartment

Authorities have picked up a person in Atlanta who might be questioned in connection with the slaying of Illinois student Olamide Adeyooye, whose burned body was found in Newton County.

Asked if someone was being questioned in Adeyooye’s death, Newton County Sheriff Jackie Knight said Thursday night he “could not comment on whether there was a person of interest and if he were in jail in Atlanta.”

The name of the man picked up by authorities remains unknown, but he reportedly lived in the same apartment complex in Normal, Ill., as the 21-year-old Nigerian native.

More interesting information on the arrested man in Atlanta. (Hat Tip: kshe78)

The remains of a woman believed to be in her early 20s were found in recent days in a rural Mississippi chicken house, and authorities said Monday they may be a missing Illinois State University student.

Police in Downstate Normal — where 21-year-old Olamide Adeyooye disappeared two weeks ago from an off-campus apartment — were notified Sunday or Monday about the possible link. Illinois authorities are sending dental and medical records to the coroner in Newton County, Miss., about 70 miles east of Jackson and Interstate 55. Police would not say whether the woman found is Adeyooye, but family and friends have been told the physical similarities are striking. It could be several days until the coroner can make a final identification, authorities in Mississippi said.

Police send Adeyooye’s medical records to Mississippi

Normal police provided medical records of missing ISU student Olamide Adeyooye to Mississippi authorities Monday after receiving word that an unidentified female body had been recovered.

The Normal Police received a call yesterday afternoon from Mississippi State Highway Patrol that an unidentified body had been discovered, NPD Lieutenant Mark Kotte said.

Update from WFIE 14, most likely the body recovered by police in Mississippi will not be identified until Wednesday.

Authorities say they likely won’t know until at least Wednesday whether a body found in Mississippi is that of a missing Illinois State University student. Police in Normal said they’re still collecting medical and dental records Tuesday that will be used to determine whether the unidentified body is that of 21-year-old ISU senior Olamide Adeyooye. Police say they hope to send the records to Mississippi later in the day.

Update: From NBC5; Police Hope To Identify Body As Search For Student Continues

“Whether or not this pans out to be the body of Olamide … is to be seen,” he said.

Adeyooye’s family is hopeful that the body is not hers.

“It just hit me, you know, my sister could be dead,” said Adewale Adeyooye, the missing woman’s brother. “And this whole time, even though this whole thing was going on, it was hard to believe.”

Mississippi authorities notified Normal investigators about the body Monday in response to a nationwide alert seeking Adeyooye and her car, Kotte said. The car, a green 1996 Toyota Corolla, still was missing.

The alert notifies investigators any time an unidentified body is found that could match Adeyooye’s description, Kotte said. It is the first report Normal police received since their investigation began, he said.

Related posts:
Search Continues for Missing IL Student, Olamide Adeyooye. (Landfill Searched)
Olamide Adeyooye, 21-year-old Illinois State University student Missing

Others covering missing Olamide Adeyooye:
An Inch from Murder; Remains may be those of missing ISU woman
Unearth Mississippi; Police send Adeyooye’s medical records to Mississippi (Daily Vidette)
Proviso Probe; CRIME, body found in Mississippi