June 02--A former cable repairman serving a life sentence for murder and rape was given a second life term in the sexual assault and murder of a woman 10 years ago.
Anthony Triplett, 35, was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole at the Leighton Criminal Court building by Judge Kevin Sheehan.
Triplett was convicted in May of strangling and raping Janic Ordidge in 2006. She was found dead in her bathtub two days after Triplett made a service call to her home in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.
"It's finally over," said Ordidge's older sister, Loretta Shamley, last month when Triplett was convicted. "It's been a long time coming."
After a seven-day trial, a Cook County jury took only 40 minutes to convict Triplett. His DNA had been found under Ordidge's fingernails, authorities said. Prosecutors have described Triplett as a sociopath and psychopath.
After Ordidge's killing in October 2006, Triplett was questioned several times by police and gave a sample of his DNA, but he was allowed to keep making service calls for a Comcast subcontractor, Premier Cable Communications. Officers even dropped him off at his job after one interrogation, according to trial testimony.
Seven weeks after Ordidge's slaying, Triplett raped and killed Urszula Sakowska, 23, at her Southwest Side home. Her body was also found in a bathtub.
Jurors convicted Triplett of Sakowska's murder in 2013, and Sheehan sentenced him to life in prison in that case.
Prosecutors decided to try him for the second slaying, but the case was repeatedly delayed after Triplett fired his attorneys.
Triplett took the witness stand at his trial in May and in a soft voice attempted to convince jurors that he had consensual sex with Ordidge after protecting her from an unidentified man with dreadlocks and a goatee who he claimed she was arguing with in her apartment.
Under questioning from Assistant State's Attorney Ashley Romito, Triplett said Ordidge gave him her iPod as "collateral" for installing an illegal cable connection before they had sex.
He also admitted forging customers' signatures on multiple work orders that day as well as the day Sakowska was killed.
Jurors were allowed to hear about Triplett's conviction for Sakowska's murder. At his 2013 trial, prosecutors presented evidence that DNA tied him to her death, her blood was found on his coat and he tossed aside a silver Seiko watch stolen from her home when police approached him at work.
Civil lawsuits filed by both families against Comcast and Premier Cable are pending and will likely move forward after Triplett is sentenced for a second time, said Colin Dunn, the families' attorney.
