Crime & Safety

Defense Wants New Warrant to Search Kustok's Cell Phone

Attorneys for Allan Kustok, who is accused of shooting and killing his wife, want prosecutors to further justify the need for searching his cell phone, after prosecutors said new technology would allow greater access to evidence on the phone.

 

Whether additional evidence gathered from Allan Kustok’s cell phone is allowed in court for the murder case against him will not be decided until March at the earliest.

In November, Assistant State’s Attorney Jennifer Gonzalez said during a hearing that technology not available in 2010, when Kustok was accused of murdering his wife Anita “Jeanie” Kustok, would allow a deeper look into data on Allan Kustok’s cell phone, including email archives and Internet use.

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Judge John J. Hynes asked attorneys for Kustok and prosecutors in December to make arguments as to why new evidence from Kustok’s phone should or shouldn’t be admitted, using any case law they felt would be relevant.

On Friday, Hynes’ decision on whether to include the new evidence or not was pushed back to March. Kustok’s defense attorney Rick Beuke asked during Friday’s hearing that a new search warrant be filed before the new evidence would be brought in.

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“I still don’t know what new technology exists now since they extracted information from the phone the initial time,” Beuke said. “Information including phone calls, entries in the address book, emails, texts, Internet searches all have been extracted before.”

Assistant State’s Attorney Lorna Amado-Chevlin said she didn’t know the specifics of the technology used, and for what information it would search.

Hynes said if probable cause was granted the first time Kustok’s cell phone was searched, it stands to reason probable cause would be granted for an additional cell phone search.

Kustok did not speak during the hearing. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit and shackled, he looked directly at Hynes throughout the brief hearing. Kustok has been in custody since Oct. 1, 2010, on a $2 million bond at a facility in Kankakee.

Prosecutors said Kustok killed his wife with a .357 Magnum given to her as an anniversary present at her head on Sept. 29, 2010, inside their Orland Park home. Beuke has contended in previous interviews that his client awoke that morning to a gunshot and found his wife dead.

Hynes pointed out Friday, as he has done previously, that the Kustok case is one of his older cases, and he wants it to go to trial “in the next few months.”

Kustok is scheduled to be back in court on March 7.

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