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Gregory's request to withdraw guilty plea delayed

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By Barb Ickes | Thursday, September 27, 2007 |

The Adrianne Reynolds murder case will be nearing its third anniversary by the time Cory Gregory’s request to take back his guilty plea is heard by a judge.

Another continuance was granted Wednesday in the year-old motion by the 19-year-old Moline man to withdraw his guilty plea in the Jan. 21, 2005, slaying.

Reynolds, of East Moline, was 16 when she was killed in a car in a parking lot of a Moline Taco Bell. While Gregory pleaded guilty to the killing, his co-defendant, Sarah Kolb, also 19, was found guilty in a retrial in Dixon, Ill. The jury in her first trial in Rock Island County voted 11-1 in favor of conviction, but a unanimous verdict is required.

Gregory pleaded guilty to the murder and to the concealment of the murder in April 2006. He was sentenced three months later to 40 years for murder and five years for concealment.

Another month later, the teenager told a judge he wanted to withdraw the pleas.

One of his attorneys at the time, Steve Hanna, said Gregory was “disappointed” with the 40-year sentence and had hoped for fewer years, given his cooperation with police.

Gregory led authorities to Reynolds’ dismembered remains, which had been hidden in a Rock Island park and on a farm in rural Mercer County by Kolb, Gregory and a third teen, Nathan Gaudet.

Gaudet pleaded guilty to helping conceal the murder and said he used his grandfather’s handsaw to cut the girl’s remains into pieces.

Gregory’s attorneys were removed from his case when he filed the motion to withdraw. His new attorney, Herb Schultz Jr., has been granted several continuances, noting a considerable volume of court documents with which he must become familiar.

Kolb is serving her 48-year murder and five-year concealment sentences at Illinois’ only maximum-security prison for women at Dwight.

Gregory is serving his sentence at Menard.

The new date for a hearing on the motion to withdraw the pleas now is set for Jan. 15.

Barb Ickes can be contacted at

(563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.