Ci'Andria Cole

Stepfather Ignored Girl's Plea

August 8, 2007

A former security guard ignored the cries of his 13-year-old stepdaughter late Monday night and shot his family to death in their small Miller apartment, police say. For three hours, a man identified by police sources as Kevin Isom, 41, kept the city's SWAT team at bay outside his Lakeshore Dunes apartment building while a negotiator repeatedly tried to reach him on a phone.

When police finally charged into the residence, they found Isom's wife, 40-year-old Cassandra Isom, and her children, 16-year-old Michael Moore and 13-year-old Ci'Andria Cole, dead on the floor.

Authorities allege Isom killed his family after his wife threatened to leave him because he was not working and she was paying all the bills.

Attorneys seek delay in Lake County's lone death penalty trial

Lake County public defenders Herbert Shaps and Casey McCloskey are asking for more time to prepare the county's only death penalty case.

In reporting their progress to the court Friday, Shaps told Lake Criminal Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr. four more months are not adequate to meet the current trial date of May 2, 2011.

The public defender's office was ordered in November to take over representing murder defendant Kevin Isom, 45.

Isom is accused of fatally shooting his wife, Cassandra Isom, 40, and her two children, Michael Moore, 16, and Ci'Andria Cole, 13, on Aug. 6, 2007, at the family's Lakeshore Dunes Apartments in Miller.

Stefaniak had ordered the public defender's office to take over Isom's defense after Isom sought to replace the law firm of Thiros & Stracci in the wake of the death of trial lawyer Nick Thiros in October.

At the time, Stefaniak told Isom the chances of obtaining a refund from the Thiros firm and finding a new private lawyer to take on a death penalty case were minimal and declared Isom indigent.

Stefaniak said he thought it necessary to move the case forward in the interest of the victims' family.

Stefaniak on Friday took the question of continuing the trial under advisement until a hearing Feb. 25, 2011 when the public defenders also are expected to report on other trial issues.


See posts for her dear mother Cassandra Isom and brother Michael Moore.