WASHINGTON COUNTY — Washington County jurors on Monday found a 22-year-old Okawville man guilty of obstructing justice but not guilty of concealing the death of 18-year-old Dakota Ellerbusch in his family’s rural Washington County clubhouse.

The verdict against Shane R. Lindsay came just hours after Judge Daniel Emge dismissed three of five charges.

At the beginning of the trial Lindsay was facing felony charges of drug-induced homicide in addition to obstruction of justice by destroying evidence, concealment of a death, unlawful delivery of a controlled substance, and involuntary manslaughter.

However, Judge Emge ruled Monday on a defense motion for a directed verdict that there was no evidence admitted in the case that Lindsay gave Ellerbusch fentanyl, that fentanyl was in the teen’s system or that the fentanyl caused the teen’s death.

Emge subsequently dismissed all but the obstruction of justice and concealment of a death charges, with the jury ultimately only finding the defendant guilty of the Class 4 felony obstruction charge.

According to the Belleville News-Democrat, the prosecution told jurors during closing arguments Monday that Lindsay was clearly guilty of lying to the police and concealing the teen’s death, despite the defense beating up on the local officers, who were not the ones on trial.

The defense argued that in his more than 30 years of experience as a prosecutor, judge and defense attorney in Southern Illinois he’s never seen a homicide case brought to trial without a pathologist’s testimony.

The obstruction charge says Lindsay gave false information to a Washington County detective regarding the true circumstances surrounding Ellerbusch’s death.

Lindsay was released following the jury’s verdict Monday, after posting $1,500 bond. He had been held in the Washington County Jail since his arrest in January. Sentencing will be at 9 a.m. Sept. 21.