A downstate IL jury deliberated for less than an hour on Tuesday before finding the former suburban Chicago police officer guilty of trying to solicit the murder of the prosecutor responsible for Peterson’s murder conviction in the 2004 death of Kathleen Savio.
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The murder-for-hire case centers on recordings made at the maximum security Menard Correctional Center in southern IL where Peterson is serving his sentence and where a fellow inmate, Antonio Smith, taped him saying he wanted to hire someone to kill Glasgow, according to prosecutors.
Peterson was convicted of trying to hire a fellow inmate’s uncle while in prison to kill Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, who helped convict Peterson in 2012 of killing ex-wife Kathleen Savio eight years earlier. Glasgow personally prosecuted Peterson for the death of Peterson’s third wife Kathleen Savio. Smith testified last week that Peterson enlisted him to help kill Glasgow. On his way out of the courtroom Tuesday, Peterson was seen muttering something to Stacy’s sister.
Peterson is serving a 38-year sentence in Savio’s death and may well get another 60 years after being convicted in the murder-for-hire case.
Peterson showed no emotion as the verdict was announced, holding his head in one hand.
While in prison between September 2013 and December 2014, Peterson arranged for a fellow inmate, Antonio Smith, to hire a relative to kill Glasgow. Peterson also maintained his innocence in the murder-for-hire plot.
No one has been charged in Stacy’s death, but Drew Peterson remains the prime suspect. “That’s what you wanted, right?”
“If Glasgow is dead by Christmas, when will that put you out?”
“OK, all right. I’m in”, Peterson was heard responding in the recording. “From the first time we talked about it, there was no turning back …”
Among those in the public seats was the sister of Peterson’s fourth wife, Stacey Peterson, who went missing in 2007.
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“He said it, he meant it, and he’s guilty”, prosecutor Steve Nate, of the IL attorney general’s office, told the jury during his closing argument on Tuesday. “I have always had the philosophy (that) if I have a provable murder case against a defendant, I’m bringing it no matter what”.
