Man accused of killing Mona Ellison was awaiting court date in domestic violence case

Jan. 30—PEORIA — A man accused of killing Mona Ellison was already due in court next week on domestic battery charges involving the Peoria woman last year.

The court appearance was pushed back almost three months, in large part because of the coronavirus pandemic, officials said.

Christopher James Sanders was to appear Wednesday in Peoria County Circuit Court after he was arrested Oct. 6 in connection with a domestic violence case Sept. 2 involving Ellison, according to police reports and Peoria County State's Attorney Jodi Hoos.

Heavily redacted police reports, obtained by the Journal Star through a public records request, shed little light on what transpired that day, except that police were called to Ellison's home after a neighbor reported she was having trouble with a man, later identified as Sanders, who had left by the time police arrived.

Sanders was found about a month later and booked into the county jail on charges of home invasion and domestic battery, but he was released with a notice to appear in court, according to Hoos.

Ellison was found dead Jan. 21 in East Peoria. Sanders is back in the jail with a first-degree murder charge alleging he killed her.

When someone is released from jail, they are usually given a notice to appear within a month or two. But the pandemic has delayed things, in an attempt to limit the number of people in the courthouse.

Sanders has no charges pending from the September case. Usually, such a decision is made when someone appears in court or after consultation with the victim, Hoos said.

Early in the investigation of Ellison's death, Peoria officers followed information that led to Sanders' arrest, police spokeswoman Amy Dotson said. She did not divulge details.

Officers noted the September case as they probed Sanders' history, according to Dotson.

Peoria County State's Attorney Jodi Hoos said her office attempted to contact Ellison three or four times, either through telephone calls or mail. Included in the mailings was information from the OSF HealthCare STRIVE program, which is designed to help victims of domestic violence.

In every case, Ellison didn't respond, Hoos said.

Nothing about the case last September at Ellison's North Valley residence indicated there was a need to hasten the normal chain of events, according to Hoos.

"It's typical practice to wait for the court date unless there is something that tells us to step in and protect the individual," she said. "We normally wait until the court date.

"There was nothing on the face of this that, without her cooperation, made it appear to us that we needed to step in."

Peoria County Sheriff Brian Asbell didn't know enough about Sanders' previous arrest to provide input. But from a historical perspective, he suggested the handling of Sanders' case was not out of the norm.

Most of those arrested for domestic battery are held in jail for a day or two, then are released on a $100 bond or a notice to appear, according to Asbell. Suspects with aggravating factors are jailed at higher bail amounts.

"At the end of the day, this is a prosecutor-judicial decision," Asbell stated.

Renette Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Ellison family, said Ellison was not currently dating Sanders and had gotten out of the relationship after he became abusive.

Johnson didn't have many facts or details, she said, as Ellison was private with her affairs.

"She was afraid of him," Johnson told the Journal Star. "They let him out on a $100 bond. She was afraid of him and feared for her life.

"I don't know what he said or what he did to her. But I believe that once she realized that he was abusive and everything else, she didn't want to be in a relationship."

Ellison was a 1988 graduate of Galesburg High School. She had lived in the Peoria area much of her adult life and usually worked as a bartender or waitress.

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