Stories by Matt Masterson

Federal prosecutors and Brendt Christensen’s defense team are each expected to call their final witnesses before Friday. Among those slated to testify: Christensen’s former girlfriend, who wore a wire for the FBI, and his ex-wife.

“I want to test my limits and experience everything,” Brendt Christensen wrote in his profile on Fetlife.com, a social media site for adults with alternative sexual interests, weeks before Yingying Zhang disappeared.

Alaaulldin Al Ibrahim, or “Al” to his friends, was born in Syria, moved to Jordan and eventually resettled as a refugee in Chicago. This fall he’ll attend the University of Illinois at Chicago on a full scholarship to study pre-med.

Illinois banned capital punishment in 2011, but a state resident now faces a possible death sentence in a first-of-its-kind murder trial since that ban took effect. A Northwestern law professor explains how that’s possible.

Reporters are allowed into the courtroom where Brendt Christensen is on trial, but electronic devices are not. Read the court transcript of Wednesday’s stunning opening arguments.

“Brendt Christensen is responsible for the death of Yingying Zhang,” federal defender George Taseff told a packed court Wednesday inside the Peoria federal courthouse. Despite the admission, Christensen is not changing his not guilty plea. 

The federal lawsuit claims university social workers should have done more to address the “homicidal ideations” of Brendt Christensen, who is charged in the kidnapping and death of Yingying Zhang.

Terrance Finley, 24, was charged Tuesday with reckless homicide and aggravated DUI after he allegedly drove into an Auburn Gresham neighborhood restaurant, killing a 35-year-old woman.

Attorneys for the man charged with the kidnapping and death of a Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois are demanding access to mental health treatment records from his girlfriend, who wore a wire for federal investigators.

Sunday marks the two-year anniversary of Yingying Zhang’s disappearance. Her kidnapping has left a mark on the University of Illinois campus as the trial of the man accused of her killing gets underway.

The R&B superstar pleaded not guilty to several new criminal charges relating to a 16-year-old victim he allegedly sexually abused between 2009 and 2010.

For years, Jeffrey Batio promised investors a revolutionary 3-in-1 laptop device. Prosecutors say it was all a lie that allowed him to defraud investors out of millions of dollars.

One prospective juror in the high-profile case said she’d have difficulty sentencing someone to death because “God doesn’t want us to take revenge.”

As she releases 2,000 pages of documents related to the high-profile case, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx claims she recused herself because of a false rumor that she was related to the “Empire” actor.

A Cook County judge will decide next month whether a special prosecutor is needed to review the handling of the Jussie Smollett case by the state’s attorney’s office.

A new trove of documents is shedding light on the Chicago Police Department’s investigation into “Empire” star Jussie Smollett’s “false report” that he was the victim of a hate crime.

The R&B superstar is facing 11 new charges, three months after he was initially hit with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for allegedly assaulting multiple women between the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Jury selection in the capital trial of Brendt Christensen is set to begin Monday in Peoria. Christensen is charged with kidnapping resulting in the death of 26-year-old Yingying Zhang, who went missing in 2017.

The Cook County Clerk on Thursday released more than 250 pages related to the “Empire” star’s abruptly halted prosecution for allegedly filing a false police report. Read the entire file.

A suburban tragedy inspired new legislation that could aid students who face questioning by police inside their school.

A Cook County judge vacated a sealing order that had kept the case file removed from the public eye following intense public scrutiny over the prosecution’s handling and dismissal of the high-profile case.

Highland Park High School won’t be handing out its yearbooks on time after a statement linked to Nazi leaders was chosen as a senior quote.

The suburban school district’s Board of Education voted Monday to spend $54,000 to reprint the books after more than a dozen photos were found of students displaying an upside-down “OK” hand gesture.

Chicago’s new mayor, the first black woman and openly gay person to hold the office, takes aim at aldermanic prerogative and outlines her four guiding principles: community safety, public education, stability and integrity.

A bond proffer presented by Cook County prosecutors Friday outlines the gruesome details of a pregnant teens’s death at the hands of Clarisa Figueroa and her 24-year-old daughter Desiree Figueroa.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her top assistant will not have to testify about their dismissal of criminal charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett despite a request for a special prosecutor to investigate how that case was handled.