GUILTY IL - John, 44, & Maria Granat, 42, murdered, Palos Park, 11 Sept 2011

[JoeFromLB]

All four suspects ordered to undergo DNA testing:

http://palos.patch.com/articles/four-teens-charged-in-palos-township-beating-deaths-appear-in-court

The sheriff's office believes there are other classmates who had knowledge of the crime and did not come forward. It is still an open investigation.

 

[JoeFromLB]

Defense lawyers get more evidence in Granat killings

http://palos.patch.com/articles/defense-lawyers-get-granat-killing-evidence

December 30, 2011

Prosecutors trying four men indicted in the killing of a Palos Township couple handed defense attorneys some 200 additional pages of documents and a disc containing 1,100 photographs.

John Granat, 17, is accused of enlisting Christopher Wyma, 17, Mohammad Salahat, 17, and Ehab Qasem, 19, to beat, stab and rob his parents in September.

All four have been indicted on 75 counts related to first-degree murder, home invasion and armed robbery in the deaths of Granat's parents, John, 44, and Maria Granat, 42.

 

[JoeFromLB]

A public defender has been assigned to the case for one of the suspects, who can no longer afford a private attorney.

The case could take several years to come to trial. A status hearing is set for June 12.

http://palos.patch.com/articles/one...d-with-public-defender-in-granat-murder-trial

 

[JoeFromLB]

Motions now by three of the defendants for separate trials. The fourth defendant will face a separate trial. The other three will be back in court on March 8th.

http://www.theregionalnews.com/atf.php?sid=30904

More details of the murders at the linked article. Very brutal.

 

[scrabble]

Horrendous.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://patch.com/illinois/palos/slow-progress-made-granat-murder-case-drags-0

The year-long saga to acquire cell phone records from one of the accused killers of a Palos Township couple appeared to have finally been accomplished, but a trial date is still no where in sight for the couple’s son and his friends charged in their brutal murders...

There also appeared to be some dissension in the courtroom on Thursday, with Granat exchanging words with his fellow defendants. A sheriff’s police officer grabbed Granat by the collar of his yellow jail uniform and forcibly removed him from the courtroom at the end of the hearing, as Granat shouted out, “This is ridiculous!”

 

[JoeFromLB]

These young men could be middle-aged by the time this comes to trial.

THAT is the "ridiculous" thing here, and in many other cases we read about. It's not uncommon to see delays of 4-7 years before trials begin. There has to be a better way.

 

[JoeFromLB]

Still no trial date, not even close. Lawyers continue to argue about the evidence, including the cell phone records.

John Granat has another court hearing on November 30th.

http://www2.cookcountysheriff.org/search2/details.asp?jailnumber=2011-0913010

 

[JoeFromLB]

Mohammed Salahat pleaded guilty in January to murder and was sentenced to 35 years in prison, with credit for time served. The other defendants, including John Granat Jr., are awaiting trial.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/man-gets-35-years-for-murder-of-friends-parents-in-2011/

 

[JoeFromLB]

The judge is getting tired of all the delays in the case. It has been almost five years since the arrest of the defendants. Next hearing is set for July 22nd.

http://patch.com/illinois/palos/judge-dragged-out-granat-case-has-be-some-kind-record-0

 

[JoeFromLB]

John Granat, the alleged ringleader in the murder of his parents, wants his public defender fired. He claims the lawyer told him he was "scum".

More delays. Five years now and no trial date in sight.

http://patch.com/illinois/palos/granat-cries-public-defender-called-him-scum-court-records

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Week Before Brutal 9/11 Murder Trial, Granat Defense Attorney Wants No 9/11 Talk

On the anniversary of one of the deadliest days in America’s history, a bloody, shocking scene unfolded much closer to home, in a Palos Park bedroom where a husband and wife had been brutally bludgeoned.

LaFonzo Palmer, of the Cook County Public Defender’s office, has filed a motion asking that no mention be made during the trial of the terrorist attacks against the United States — the anniversary on which the murders are alleged to have occurred. Palmer maintains that such allusions would deny his client — Granat — a fair trial, according to court records.

“[The] state plans to use evidence that these crimes occurred on or about Sept. 10-11, 2011. September 11 is a national day of mourning for the horrific actions that occurred on that date in 2001,” the motion states.

Wyma and Granat will be tried at the same time and in the same courtroom, but with separate juries. Juror selection for the double murder trial is expected to take place Jan. 9 and Jan. 10 at the Fifth Municipal District Courthouse in Bridgeview. Opening statements are anticipated to start Jan. 11.

The two are facing 75 counts each of murder, home invasion and robbery. A third defendant, Ehab Qasem is awaiting trial in Livingston County, IL, where he is being held in protective custody. Qasem is also scheduled for a status hearing in front of Cook County Judge Neil Linehan the day jury selection is set to begin on Jan. 9.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Stage Set for Granat-Wyma Double Murder Trial, Co-Defendant Qasem To Be Star Witness

A Hickory Hills man accused of taking part in the double murder of a Palos Park couple in 2011 will be the star witness against two former friends and co-defendants who are set to go to trial this week.

Jury selection is being done alphabetically, with Granat’s jury being chosen on Monday, and Wyma’s on Tuesday. Crawling through the legal system for the past five years, Linehan wants opening statements for Wyma’s trail to take place Tuesday afternoon if a jury is able to be seated. Opening statements for Granat will happen Wednesday morning. The trial is expected to continue into the next week.

Qasem will testify against his two former friends in exchange for a yet-to-be-announced plea agreement. He has a status hearing in front of Linehan on Monday. Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Donna Norton told Linehan that Qasem will testify on the four men’s plans to kill the Palos Park couple and concealing evidence in the aftermath.

Granat Jury Seated, Jury Selection and Opening Statements for Wyma To Take Place Tuesday

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Trial starts for Palos Township man, friend accused of slaying his parents 5 years ago - January 11th

The severe demeanor a teenage John Granat Jr. displayed in a mugshot authorities took of him about five years ago following the beating and stabbing deaths of his parents was not apparent during the start of his trial on Wednesday.

Granat Jr., now 22, wore black glasses with a dress shirt and frowned as prosecutors described to Cook County jurors the brutal slayings of John Granat Sr. and Maria Granat inside their unincorporated Palos Park home.

Granat Jr. and his best friend, Christopher Wyma, 22, of Bridgeview, are on trial this week for the first-degree murders of the affluent couple. Both were 17-year-old seniors at Stagg High School when the Granats were killed.

On Wednesday, prosecutors played a 911 call Granat Jr. made the night of the slayings. In it, he seems to calmly say that his house had been ransacked. He told the dispatcher that didn't need an ambulance, Granat Jr. was heard flatly saying on the recording, "but my parents are dead."

Prosecutors said Granat Jr. told police an evolving story about the night his parents were killed and would eventually tell no less than 14 different versions of what happened, authorities have said.

Court video shows son's evolving stories following Palos couple's killings - January 12th

Hours after his parents' gruesome murder, John Granat Jr. told police his father had forced him into a life of crime and that the family business of selling marijuana is what got them killed, according to video testimony played in court Thursday.

"My dad was a top drug dealer," Granat Jr. told investigators in September 2011, according to the video testimony. "That's why they called him "G," for Granat.

A month later in October 2011, Christopher Wyma, of Bridgeview, initially told the same investigators that Granat Jr. killed his parents with baseball bats and forced him and another friend to become unwitting accomplices before slowly implicating himself more and more over hours of interrogation, according to video evidence played Thursday in Bridgeview court.

"I'm sorry if I go to jail for this," Wyma told investigators. "My bad."

Cook County Det. Sgt. Steve Moody, one of the investigators who interviewed both Granat Jr. and Wyma, testified Thursday that there was no evidence that Granat Sr. was or ever had been a drug dealer.

Moody and another investigator methodically picked apart Granat Jr.'s story before confronting him with the information about the traffic stop, according to the video evidence.

Prosecutors alleged Granat Jr.'s story changed over time. During the video evidence, Granat Jr. pivoted and told police he instead he slept at his friend Wyma's house until 5 a.m. and believed drug dealers were responsible for his parents death.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Woman testifies ex-boyfriend wanted her to destroy bloody shirt - January 13th

Stephanie Wydra testified Friday that she found in her ex-boyfriend's bedroom a plastic bag filled with $15,000 in cash after he told her to destroy one of his bloody T-shirts.

The boyfriend, Christopher Wyma, later told her about the troubling thoughts he had been having, Wydra said.

"He just blurted out, 'I can't get their screams out of my head,' " Wydra told Cook County jurors.

On Friday, Wydra, who had dated Wyma for about three months, said she watched from a short distance the meeting that, prosecutors said, sparked the series of events that weekend leading to the slayings.

Wydra told jurors she overheard the boys say, "It is happening tonight. This is on."

Wyma's defense has argued that he did not kill the Granats but was there that morning and displayed "poor judgment" by helping destroy evidence. An attorney for John Granat Jr. has argued that evidence shows Wyma and another friend, Ehab Qasem, killed the Granats, and suggested that John Granat Jr. treated his friends well because of his family's wealth.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Son, friend found guilty of killing parents in 2011 Palos Township slayings

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/daily-southtown/crime/ct-sta-granat-murder-trial-st-0119-20170118-story.html

Two men, one the son of a slain unincorporated Palos Park couple, were found guilty Wednesday afternoon in the deaths of John Granat Sr. and Maria Granat.

John Granat Jr., 22, betrayed little emotion as the verdict was read. Co-defendant Christopher Wyma, 22, of Bridgeview, smiled briefly toward his family seated in the courtroom as a Cook County Sheriff's deputy led him back into lockup following the verdict. Jurors found both men guilty of two counts of first-degree murder.

Qasem, the other man with Wyma in the bedroom, testified against both this week. He testified to jurors in vivid detail how he beat both with baseball bats and stabbed Maria Granat with a knife that Granat Jr. had given him.

Qasem gave his testimony earlier this week as part of a plea deal with the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, prosecutors said. He agreed to plead guilty to one count of first-degree murder in the death of Granat Sr., while avoiding charges in Maria Granat's slaying, in exchange for a 40-year prison sentence.

Granat Jr. and Wyma return to court next month for possible sentencing

On stand, man describes fatal beating of south suburban couple

Sister Brings John and Maria Granat Back to Life in Double-Murder Trial

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

'Scared' Killer Denied New Trial, Complains About His Attorney

http://patch.com/illinois/palos/scared-killer-snivels-lawyer-wants-new-trial

Linehan took up Wyma’s motion for a retrial, based on a lawsuit he filed in August against the Cook County Public Defender’s office for “ineffective assistance of counsel” from his public defender, Daniel Nolan, and court-appointed attorneys Richard Labrador and Joseph Stachler.

Wyma described the lawsuit to the judge.

“Things I wanted done weren’t getting done,” he said. “For my trust, to be in this position facing natural life, it scared me.”

Wyma said he had researched a few cases where verdicts were overturned based on inadequate counsel.

“I only met the public defenders a month before the trial,” he said.

“The motions he claims he worked on, if you look at Cook County Jail records of when he clocked in and out, we met five times over the past five years,” Wyma told the judge. “And each time he stayed under 30 minutes.”

Linehan said he understood that the results of the trial were “disappointing” to Wyma.

“You couldn’t have gotten a better team … they did a tremendous job with the limited defense they had for you,” the judge said. “The evidence was overwhelming.”

The judge denied the motion for a new trial, as well as Nolan’s motions to quash and suppress Wyma’s statements and arrest.

Linehan set Wyma’s sentencing for March 17. He told attorneys at both sides that he expected to start at “9 a.m. sharp.”

Sentencing Date Set for John Granat as Judge Denies Motion for New Trial

http://patch.com/illinois/palos/sentencing-date-set-john-granat-judge-denies-motion-new-trial

Striding into the courtroom, a bearded John Granat wearing a canary yellow jail uniform, along with his public defenders and Cook County prosecutors met on Friday for post-trial motions before Judge Neil Linehan.

Linehan denied Granat’s motion for a new trial, repeating what he had said during Wyma’s post-trial hearing on Wednesday, that the “physical, scientific and oral evidence” against both men was overwhelming.

“I want to congratulate both sides for deciding which evidence each jury should hear,” the judge said. “[The prosecutors] precisely dissected out information that applied to each defendant. The rulings were correct."

Granat, who faces a possible sentence of natural life in prison, will be sentenced on March 23.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

'I Accept Full Responsibility for My Actions:' Ehab Qasem Gets 40 Years for Granat Slayings

http://patch.com/illinois/palos/i-accept-full-responsibility-my-actions-ehab-qasem-handed-40-year-sentence-granat

Ehab Qasem pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder in exchange for a 40-year glimmer of hope that he would one day walk away free from a state prison.

The 25-year-old Qasem, shackled in handcuffs and leg irons, stood in a lonely courtroom Wednesday morning and listened to assistant state’s attorney Donna Norton describe his actions during the early morning hours of Sept. 11, 2011, when he helped murder his friend John Granat’s parents as they slept in their beds.

The prosecutors had recommended a 40-year sentence in exchange for Qasem’s “truthful testimony” during January’s double-murder trial of Granat and co-defendant Christopher Wyma. Granat and Wyma, both 22, were found guilty by a jury after days of often grisly testimony.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

'You Are Not Only Irredeemably Corrupt, You Are Also Evil,' Judge Tells Parent Killer

“In addition to telling my mother that her beloved daughter was murdered, I had to tell her that her beloved grandson was accused of killing her,” Lawler said, reading Kathy Sieczka’s words about her older sister, Maria. “The worst part of it, you never showed any remorse or regret. How could you be so evil?”

Judge Linehan said that Granat did not meet considerations in the juvenile sentencing law because he wasn’t physically or sexually abused at home, did not suffer from mental illness and appeared very much loved by his family.

“If nothing else, his parents may have spoiled him,” the judge said. “This is a horrific crime committed in the most brutal and heinous manner. He was the mastermind.”

Before imposing sentencing, Linehan said in his 15 years as a prosecutor and 19 years on the bench, including dealing with thousands of victims and defendants, and hundreds of murder cases involving “dice games gone bad, teenagers fighting over who sat in the front seat, and arguments over banana pie and pork chops,” that the Granats’ murders “are as bad as any that I’ve seen.”

The judge said that even though Granat paid others to do his killing, he found Granat to be the “mastermind.” Linehan also said he was struck by a statement Granat made on the police interrogation, in which the teen described finding “his father’s on the ground.”

“You are not only irredeemably corrupt, you are also evil,” the judge said. “Every time the bat struck your parents, each time the knife went into your mother, that was your cold, calculating hand.”

Granat was sentenced to terms of natural life, to be served concurrently, for the murders of his mother and father.

“I find the sentence appropriate,” Linehan said.

A smirking Granat was led out of the courtroom.

Tearful Killer Begs Family for Forgiveness

Against the advice of his attorneys, Wyma read a statement, describing the damage he and his friends did as “horrible.”

“I’m a human being with feelings and emotions … at the trial when I saw the [crime scene] pictures, I couldn’t believe what was done,” Wyma told the Granat family. “I just want you to know that I’m not a monster. I’ve lost my life and may never see the light of day again. I hope one day one of you guys forgives me.”

Breaking down, Wyma said he has “cried” over the pain he’s caused, and professed his love for his family.

Linehan said Granat and Wyma’s behavior was “intertwined” and could not be separated. The judge said Wyma was “irredeemably corrupt,” but stopped short of calling him evil, as he had Granat.

“You never truly gave an accurate confession,” Linehan told Wyma. “I go back to a statement made in [co-defendant Ehab Qasem’s] testimony after the murders, when you said that Mr. and Mrs. Granat ‘deserved it.’ That pretty much sums up who you are.”

The judge sentenced Wyma to two concurrent sentences of natural life without parole. Nolan said he would appeal the sentence.

Outside the Bridgeview courtroom, Wyma’s mother, brother and sister wept and hugged each other. In another corner of the hallway, the Granat family hugged prosecutor Donna Norton.

“It’s over,” the prosecutor told them. “After five-and-a-half years, it’s finally over.”