May 31--Closing arguments are set to begin Tuesday morning in the murder-for-hire trial of Drew Peterson, accused of trying to arrange a hit man to kill Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow.
It will be the second time in less than four years that Peterson, 62, will find his fate in the hands of a jury. In 2012, the former Bolingbrook police officer was convicted of killing his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found dead in her bathtub in 2004 as the couple was finalizing their divorce.
In 2007, Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared in a case that garnered international headlines and prompted Glasgow to reopen a probe into Savio's death, which was originally ruled an accident.
Authorities allege that while Peterson was serving his 38-year sentence for Savio's murder at the Menard Correctional Center in downstate Chester, he approached another inmate and asked if the man could find someone to kill Glasgow.
The inmate, Antonio "Beast" Smith, eventually tipped off authorities to the plot and agreed to wear a wire.
During about two weeks in November 2014, Smith made recordings of his conversations with Peterson in prison. The recordings capture Peterson discussing how he believed that if Glasgow were dead, his appeal of the murder conviction would be successful and he would not be charged in connection with Stacy Peterson's disappearance.
In one conversation, Smith told Peterson he had arranged for his uncle to kill Glasgow by Christmas of that year.
"I told him what you said, that it's the green light on, that basically go ahead and kill him," Smith said in a Nov. 15, 2014, recording. "That's what you wanted, right? ... It ain't no turning back."
"OK, alright. I'm in," Peterson responds. "From the first time we talked about it, there was no turning back. ... If I get some booze in here, we'll celebrate that night."
But Peterson's attorneys dismissed the tapes as mostly unintelligible or filled with nonsensical talk. They also tried to paint Smith as an inveterate liar who was trying to leverage his allegations against Peterson to obtain cash and an early prison release for himself.
Both sides rested their cases Friday and closing arguments are slated to begin when the trial resumes at 8:45 a.m. Tuesday at the Randolph County Courthouse in Chester.
mwalberg@tribpub.com
