An Illinois jury on Tuesday found Drew Peterson guilty of trying to hire a hitman to kill the prosecutor who put him behind bars for killing his third wife, Kathleen Savio.
Peterson, a 62-year-old former suburban Chicago cop, is the lone suspect in the disappearance of Stacy Peterson, his fourth wife. He is already serving 38 years in prison for the 2004 murder of Savio.
Savio’s drowning death was originally ruled an accident, but Stacy Peterson’s 2007 disappearance garnered international attention and prompted Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow to reopen a probe into Savio's death.
He prosecuted the 2012 murder case against Peterson.
On Tuesday, the jury found that Peterson tried to arrange for a fellow inmate at Menard Correctional Center to hire a relative to kill Glasgow. The inmate, Antonio “Beast” Smith, wore a wiretap and worked with authorities to record his conversations with Peterson in November 2014, the Chicago Tribune reported.
In a Nov. 15, 2014, recording, Smith told Peterson he had arranged for his uncle to kill Glasgow by Christmas 2014. "I told him what you said, that it's the green light on, that basically go ahead and kill him,” Smith said. “That's what you wanted, right? ... It ain't no turning back."
"O.K., all right. I'm in," Peterson responds in the recording.
The jury in Chester, Ill., listened to hours of recordings and deliberated for about an hour before finding Peterson guilty of solicitation of murder for hire and solicitation of murder, the Tribune reported. The charges carry a prison sentence of up to 60 years.
No one has ever been charged in Stacy Peterson's disappearance. On the recordings, Peterson told Smith he believed his wife was still alive.
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