Man jailed for 10th DUI is convicted for soliciting murder of judge, prosecutor and his ex-wife
Corrected: Sentenced to an additional 16-year prison term after being convicted–for the 10th time–of driving under the influence, Gordon Vanderark allegedly tried to get back at the Illinois prosecutor and judge who put him there.
He tried to arrange with a fellow inmate for them to be killed, along with his ex-wife, said authorities when he was charged in 2011 with solicitation of murder for hire, the Daily Herald reported.
“I want them to suffer,” Vanderark said as he allegedly offered $70,000 for the slayings.
His lawyer, Neil Levine, argued at trial that his client, now 56, was just talking tough. But conversations recorded by a fellow inmate, who wore a wire after writing DuPage County Judge Blanche Hill Fawell to alert her of the threat, apparently helped convince the jury otherwise, according to the Chicago Tribune.
After deliberating about three hours, the jury in the DuPage County case found Vanderark guilty on Tuesday. He is now expected to get another 20 to 40 years when he is sentenced in the murder-solicitation case.
Corrected at 2:28 p.m. to restore the reporter’s original story after a copy editor introduced an error.
