40 MORE YEARS
Ex- cop Drew Peterson — already serving 38 years for his third wife’s murder — sentenced for trying to have prosecutor James Glasgow killed
CHESTER, Ill. — Ex- cop and convicted killer Drew Peterson knew there were good odds he would die behind bars before he’d finished his 38year sentence for the murder of third wife, Kathleen Savio.
Friday, the odds got longer as a downstate judge handed Peterson, 62, a 40- year sentence for attempting to hire a hitman to kill Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow.
It was a subdued performance for Peterson, who shouted “I did not kill Kathleen” at the top of his lungs during his sentencing hearing three years ago. In a soft- spoken tone Friday, a worn- looking Peterson offered Randolph County Judge Richard Brown a rambling account of his nearly decadelong run as a tabloid villain, and insisted that his latest conviction was — yet again — the work of bungling defense lawyers and an overzealous Glasgow.
Peterson was convicted in May of attempting to hire a hitman to target Glasgow, who had led the investigation of the former Bolingbrook cop that began shortly after Peterson’s fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, went missing in 2007. The sentence for soliciting someone to kill Glasgow won’t begin until he’s completed his sentence for Savio’s murder — moving his parole date decades out from his former parole date of 2047, when he will be 93.
Noting that his relatives seldom live past their 80s, Peterson closed his statement to the judge: “You can sentence me, I guess, to whatever you want … it doesn’t matter.”
Peterson, who had asked a judge to fire his court- appointed attorney, Lucas Liefer, ahead of Friday’s hearing, claimed Liefer had not presented evidence to jurors that would have proved Peterson was attempting a scam to win a fellow inmate a shorter sentence, and was not really trying to have Glasgow killed.
Glasgow addressed the court before Peterson spoke, saying the $ 10,000 Peterson offered to a gang member Peterson befriended at Menard Correctional Center had made his wife and young children paranoid. Glasgow’s 13- year- old son recently was startled when he heard a ceramic pot shatter outside the family’s Joliet home, and thought it was a hitman’s gunshot.
Peterson turned to face Glasgow’s seat on the opposite side of the courtroom and addressed his nemesis.
“I never did try to have you killed,” he said to Glasgow, who turned away from Peterson’s gaze. “You can think what you want.”
Outside the courtroom, Glasgow hinted that he may still charge Peterson with murdering Stacy Peterson. While her body has never been found, Glasgow noted that each year that passes with no evidence Stacy is alive makes it easier to build the case that she is dead, not missing.
Peterson said he was well aware that he was being recorded when he discussed having Glasgow killed with fellow Menard inmate Antonio Smith, a member of the Satan’s Disciples street gang nicknamed “Beast.”
Peterson said his lawyers had told him federal investigators intended to eavesdrop on his conversations while in prison, and Smith would tell prosecutors he would bait Peterson into discussing criminal plots on tape.
“Everything you heard on those tapes was staged and fabricated,” Peterson said Friday.
Why risk it? Peterson said he didn’t figure to have much time left in prison himself: either he would kill himself, or the Illinois Supreme Court would overturn his conviction at an upcoming hearing.
“At the time, I was suicidal. I didn’t think I had much more time left, and I had high hopes in my case before the Supreme Court,” Peterson said.
As Peterson left the courtroom, Stacy Peterson’s younger sister hissed at him. Outside the courtroom, reporters asked Cales what she said.
“Give up my sister,” she said. “Then go kill yourself.”