ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — The surprise release of Nathaniel Onsrud, convicted in the 2008 death of his four-month-old son Dax Llewellyn Lancial, on Tuesday shocked not only Onsrud himself, but also the boy's mother and her family.
Annette and Tom Lancial, Dax' maternal grandparents, say their daughter Elizabeth received a less than 24-hour notice that Onsrud had his murder conviction vacated and was set free from the Menard Correctional Center after 13 years behind bars.
"Our daughter actually found out from one of her friends on the internet before her attorneys had even gotten a hold of her," they said.
"Our problem comes with the fact that he was released, that the victim's family wasn’t even notified this was going on, and we’re talking about a violent person who had a $1 million bond," Annette Lancial said.
"It makes it seem like Dax’ life was nothing. They have decided to defend Onsrud, and they’re forgetting that they have a responsibility to Dax," she said, referring to the Rock Island County State's Attorney's Office.
She said her daughter had been upset since she learned of Onsrud's release. In a statement Lancial shared with News Eight, Elizabeth said:
"The public should be aware that the charges against Onsrud have not been dismissed and that the decision to release the prisoner was made without thorough research to the case. The state has decided to defend Onsrud and has forgotten their responsibility to Dax."
The statement went on to enumerate her concerns with Rock Island State's Attorney Dora Villarreal to request that Onsrud's conviction and 60-year-sentence be vacated:
"1. The medical report that led to his arrest, is 600 pages long. The States Attorney had it less than 24 hours.
2. The States Attorney admitted to not being familiar with the case and not reading the full case file.
3. States Attorney said, "I don't know anything about this guy," in reference to Onsrud.
4. States Attorney failed to disclose the fact that Onsrud is building a case against the state."
State's Attorney Villarreal said the Illinois Innocence Project approached her seeking an appeal for Onsrud. Upon retrieving the documents out of storage, "We discovered that a large portion of the documents from the case file was not handed over to the defense at the time of the initial case." She supported the project in requested the conviction be vacated.
That decision, Annette and Tom Lancial said, has them fearing for their own safety as well as their daughter's.
"He wasn’t proved guilty before, but they held him on a $1 million bond. They deemed him to be a threat. So what has changed with that? That’s what we want to know. And we’ve seen with our own eyes that he’s a threat," the grandmother said.
"He can get violent, quickly," Tom Lancial said of Onsrud, who is from Rhode Island and briefly lived with the couple.
Dax, their grandson was a happy, healthy boy, they said, who was beginning to take in his surroundings when he died from blunt force trauma while in Onsrud's care.
They say they weren't getting answers from the State's Attorney's Office on Onsrud's whereabouts.
"She doesn’t have to tell us where he’s at, I don’t care. But if he’s in the area, we need to take precautions." Annette Lancial said."Somebody should know where he’s at. If they can’t prove he’s innocent, they should at least make sure he doesn’t hurt anybody in the meantime."
The grandparents said they vowed to fight for justice for Dax, and safety for their daughter.
Onsrud's defense lawyer, Michael Oppenheimer, and the Illinois Innocence Project maintain their client's innocence and say he was the product of a crooked prosecutor and a coerced false confession. The defense now has an opportunity to review the evidence previously withheld. Onsrud has a status hearing set for September.