Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Killer ruled insane, avoids guilty verdict
Relatives of man who was stabbed to death are disappointed
After a West Boca restaurant owner was stabbed to death as customers watched in horror, his widow hoped the killer would be convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Instead, Maria Karaloukas had no choice but to accept a judge’s ruling: Ex-dishwasher Tilus Lebrun is not guilty by reason of insanity in the March 13, 2014, slaying of his boss at Jimmy the Greek Taverna.
The 47-year-old former Pompano Beach man will be confined to a state mental health facility, with his condition to be periodically monitored by the court — and victim Dimitrios Karaloukas’ loving family.
“He’s going to be locked up indefinitely,” Maria Karaloukas told reporters. “Let’s hope and pray God keeps him in there and keeps him locked up for the rest of his life. That’s all I ask for.”
Her husband was sitting near the front of the restaurant at 7:30 p.m. when Lebrun suddenly walked up to him carrying a large knife and stabbed him, three times in his left side and once in the back, an arrest report said.
A co-worker, Jose Romero of Boca Raton, also was attacked and injured. He survived, but Karaloukas, 61, died about an hour after the stabbing in the packed dining room.
Deputies soon found Lebrun wearing a black work apron and carrying a knife nearby in the 8000 block of Glades Road near Florida’s Turnpike.
Placed in the back of a cruiser, Lebrun re-