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Fugitive from La Grange found guilty
Sherry Halligan
Updated: February 5, 2013 11:00AM
Sherry Halligan was found guilty Friday of shooting to death her ex-boyfriend in La Grange a decade ago.
Judge John J. Hynes rejected Halligan’s defense that she suffered from battered woman’s syndrome presented during a five-day murder trial for the death of Dennis Campbell Jan. 30, 2003.
Hynes said he found numerous inconsistencies when Halligan, 54, took the stand Jan. 30 compared with a videotaped confession she gave with an attorney present shortly after she turned herself in to La Grange police.
Halligan was accused of shooting Dennis Campbell five times following an argument in her home at 1050 S. 6th St. She allegedly left him to die, drove around, but later turned herself in to La Grange police.
Halligan cooperated with authorities and attended hearings after she was charged with the murder, but vanished in April 2004. She was featured on “America’s Most Wanted” and highlighted as the only woman on the Chicago Crime Commission’s 10 Most Wanted List, which led to a tip and her capture in Palos Hills on July 16, 2010.
“Her actions after the event were inconsistent with somebody innocent,” Hynes said, noting testimony and evidence from Halligan’s home.
She washed her hands, changed her bloody clothes, attempted to clean up the crime scene, took a drive and threw the gun out the window, he said.
The testimony of experts provided by the prosecution regarding battered woman’s syndrome and traumatic brain injury was more credible than testimony for the defense, the judge said.
Wearing a yellow Department of Corrections jumpsuit with her long gray hair pulled back in a ponytail, Halligan appeared serene when the verdict was delivered and she was led away from the courtroom. She peered over reading glasses to look down at her hands during much of the closing arguments, but sobbed silently and wiped her eyes when her attorney recounted details of the shooting.
The testimony of experts provided by the prosecution regarding battered woman’s syndrome and traumatic brain injury was more credible than testimony for the defense, the judge said.
Wearing a yellow Department of Corrections jumpsuit with her long gray hair pulled back in a ponytail, Halligan appeared serene when the verdict was delivered and she was led away from the courtroom. She peered over reading glasses to look down at her hands during much of the closing arguments, but sobbed silently and wiped her eyes when her attorney recounted details of the shooting.
Attorney John Quirk said his client was abused physically, emotionally and sexually by Campbell and feared for her life following an argument with him after he demanded she have sex with his boss.
Halligan “bared her soul” on the stand about “a lifetime of domestic violence she’s endured, most recently at the hands of Mr. Campbell,” Quirk said.
But Assistant State’s Attorney Cheryl Galvin said Halligan was a calculating killer, seeking revenge because Campbell dumped her. She hid a loaded gun in her home, lured him there and shot him at close range five times, once in the back and the rest below the belt.
“That grouping shows she had intent to make him pay for something,” Galvin said. “To say she is a battered woman is an insult to the real victims of domestic violence.”
Sentencing was set for Feb. 27.
“I’m relieved,” said Campbell’s sister, Angeline Adams of Plainfield, Ind. “My brother didn’t deserve what he got. I wanted the judge to make things right with the family.”
