Tuesday, April 2, 2013
A New Lenox man held in the county jail for two weeks on a 35-year-old murder charge was set free.
A New Lenox widower held 13 days on a murder warrant for a different man said he feared he would be locked up for the rest of his life. "I panicked," said Pedro Hernandez, a 67-year-old father of four who was arrested March 14 in connection with a 1978 murder. "I know for this crime they can send you away for life," he said. Hernandez was taken into custody by the New Lenox police following a traffic accident. He was charged with driving under the influence, and when officers ran his name and identifiers, they reportedly discovered someone matching his description was wanted for a 35-year-old Joliet murder. The wanted man, also named Pedro Hernandez, is 66-years-old, according to court records. This Pedro Hernandez allegedly stabbed a man …
Saturday, March 30, 2013
There's not going to be a special prosecutor or a special hearing in the Hickory Street double murder case. At least not yet.
It was another week abbreviated by a court holiday. But even with just four days instead of five, there was plenty going on at the area's courthouses. In Joliet, we had one of the defense lawyers in the Nightmare on Hickory Street double murder case asking for a special hearing to find out how Patch obtained police reports no other news outlet seems able get their hands on. The Will County judge presiding over the case didn't go along with it, at least not for the moment. The judge did say he may revisit the issue of a special evidentiary hearing in the future. Attorneys representing the two young men and two young women charged with brutal murdering Terrance Rankins and Eric Glover, both 22, backed off on their request for a special …
Friday, March 22, 2013
Charles McCullum, 21, allegedly dumped his mother in the Des Plaines River after hammering a knife into her with a baseball bat.
JOLIET, IL -- Before he dumped his mother's body into the Des Plaines River, Charles McCullum choked her, stabbed her so hard with one knife the blade bent, plunged a second knife into her repeatedly, and then used a baseball bat to hammer it into her her body until the handle broke, a prosecutor said during a Friday afternoon hearing. McCullum, 21, appeared at the hearing via a closed-circuit broadcast from the Will County jail. His father, Charles McCullum Sr., stood up and stepped forward when his son came on the screen. Another man in the gallery was ejected from the courtroom and ordered out of the courthouse after shouting an obscenity when McCullum's hearing started. About a half dozen other spectators followed the man from the …
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The triggerman in a June 2009 killing was sentenced to 14 years, but with good time and time served will likely be out in less than four years.
A Joliet man took a 14 year prison sentence for a 2009 killing but will likely be free in less than four years. Marcos Camargo, 30, had pleaded guilty in January to a charge of second-degree murder in exchange for the sentence. While Judge Edward Burmila gave Camargo 14 years behind bars, with credit for the more than three years and three months he has already spent in the county jail and for day-for-day good time, Camargo could be paroled by November 2016. Camargo was indicted on charges of first degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated discharge of a firearm in connection with a June 2009 killing in the St. Patrick neighborhood. Just prior to the fatal shooting, 17-year-old Alfredo Aguirre and "several individuals…
Saturday, March 2, 2013
The judge for the Hickory Street double murder case doesn't want anyone talking.
The Hickory Street double murder case took a surprising twist this week when one of the defense lawyers complained about stories in Patch and the judge ordered the attorneys involved not to talk to the media. Will County Judge Gerald Kinney also sealed the file for the case against accused killers Adam Landerman, 19, Joshua Miner, 24, Alisa Massaro, 18, and Bethany McKee, also 18. The four were charged with murdering Terrance Rankins and Eric Glover, both 22, in Massaro's house on Hickory Street in Joliet. Judge Kinney said he wants both defense attorneys and prosecutors to investigate who allegedly leaked police reports. The judge said he will revisit the issue on March 11. Here's what else was going on in the area's courthouses last week…
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Drew Peterson was on the move again Thursday and is in another prison.
Drew Peterson wasn't one to be tied down, managing to marry four times in 29 years. And even now that he's been packed off to prison, he's still a rambling man. Peterson, 59, was transferred to his third prison since he was sentenced to serve 38 years a mere seven days ago. Peterson was whisked from the Will County jail to the Northern Reception and Classification Center on the grounds of Stateville prison the day after he was sentenced by Judge Edward Burmila. Ordinary inmates wait for the weekly bus to Stateville, but Drew Peterson is apparently no ordinary inmate, as the Will County Sheriff's Department set up a special trip to get him out quickly. Then at Stateville, where it takes an average of three weeks to two months before a …
A Chicago man was trying to protect himself and his Plainfield girlfriend when he shot her former boyfriend twice in the back, his lawyers said.
When Ricardo Gutierrez shot Javier Barrios twice in the back in October 2007, he was trying to protect his girlfriend, her young daughter and himself, his lawyers said Thursday. "It's about domestic violence. It's about self-defense. It's about fear and how people react to fear," attorney Jeff Tomczak said of what led Gutierrez, 23, to shoot Barrios, who was 18 when he died. "It's not a case of murder," said Gutierrez's other lawyer, Paul Napolski. "It's about a set of circumstances wherein a young man is forced to protect the woman he loves and the 10-month-old child he adores from the threat of immediate harm." Regardless, both Gutierrez and the woman he loves, Gabriela Escutia, 24, are up on murder charges, and Gutierrez's trial started…
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
The last of four charged with shooting a man and woman after tying them up in a robbery took a 90-year sentence.
Lauren Vasilakis stared at the man who shot her and remembered what he said before pulling the trigger. "You told me you'd walk out there and never think about me again, Vasilakis told 20-year-old Matthew Edwards. "I promise, you'll remember me the rest of your life," Vasilakis said. The rest of Edwards' life will be spent in prison, unless he manages to reach the age of 101. Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak sentenced the Joliet man to 90 years in the Department of Corrections for murder and attempted murder. Edwards was found guilty of the charges in December. Edwards shot both Vasilakis, 23 and Joshua Terdic in July 2009. He broke into Terdic's apartment and put a bullet in the Channahon man's head. Terdic, who was 21 at the time, died 10 days …
Saturday, February 23, 2013
The week was packed with Drew Peterson, but it looks like we're not going to be seeing so much of him anymore.
It was Drew Peterson all day every day in the week that just ended. It started out with a hearing to see if he needs to have a new murder trial, and that hearing went on for another two days. A college professor and a retired judge both got on the witness stand and told how former Peterson attorney Joel Brodsky not only failed to provide effective counsel at this summer's murder trial, but also committed an ethical violation by entering into a publicity contract with his client. Brodsky's former law partner got up as well and claimed Brodsky physically attacked her in the Chicago office they shared. Even Brodsky had to testify, and told all about the 11 cents he and Peterson made off a website set up to solicit donations for the disgraced …
Friday, February 22, 2013
Drew Peterson finally got out of jail, but only so he could go to prison.
The Will County Sheriff's Department didn't wait long to send Drew Peterson off to start his "life of hardship and abuse." Less than 24 hours after Peterson spoke those words in court and was sentenced to 38 years in prison, staff at the Will County jail had the disgraced ex-Bolingbrook cop packed up, out the door and on his way to Stateville Correctional Center. "Drew Peterson's paperwork for his transfer to Stateville was drawn up within a few hours of his return to (jail) after court yesterday," Deputy Chief Brian Fink of the Will County Adult Detention Facility said in a statement Friday. "The Will County Sheriff's Office transported Mr. Peterson to the (Illinois) Department of Corrections facility at 9:22 this morning without incident…
You can't handle the truth!
1:57 pm on Sunday, April 14, 2013
Bottom line this man should've never been arrested for murder and held on a murder charge. He was arrested because his name is Pedro Hernandez, the date of birth didn't even match. Sorry but you can't just go around arresting people because they have the same name as a person who murdered someone. It appears to me like State and the police took their sweet time with their investigation and … more ›