May 23--From the witness stand in a downstate courtroom Monday, Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow dismissed his nemesis Drew Peterson as no different from any other murderer.
"I've convicted 98 murderers. He's just one," Glasgow said.
Peterson is on trial on solicitation of murder charges, and prosecutors say recordings made by a fellow inmate at Menard Correctional Center prove Peterson tried to hire a hit man to kill Glasgow. Glasgow was the lead prosecutor in the case that led to Peterson's 2012 conviction in the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.
Glasgow's indifference Monday was in stark contrast to Peterson's testimony during his murder sentencing in 2013, when Peterson singled out Glasgow in a rambling 40-minute speech in which he bitterly complained that prosecutors had conspired to railroad him and demanded that Glasgow "never forget" him.
"Mr. Peterson was very angry throughout the diatribe, and he was staring at me the entire time," Glasgow recalled Monday from the witness stand at the Randolph County courthouse.
Glasgow was the first witness in the solicitation trial, which began Monday with opening statements.
During his opening statement, prosecutor Jeremy Walker said Peterson told the fellow inmate that it would be "the best Christmas present ever" if the inmate could arrange to have Glasgow killed.
"Anger, hatred, revenge. Ladies and gentlemen, that is why we're here," Walker told the jury.
Peterson's defense attorney Lucas Liefer warned the jury that prosecutors will try to sensationalize the trial against his client.
"The state thinks it's a novel idea that a man in maximum-security prison might not like the man who put him there," Liefer said.
Peterson, 62, faces a sentence of up to 60 years if convicted of both solicitation of murder for hire along with solicitation of murder. He is serving 38 years for Savio's death.
Peterson gained infamy when his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, vanished from their home in Bolingbrook, where Drew Peterson was a longtime police officer.
Her disappearance -- amplified by his showy behavior and appetite for media coverage -- garnered international headlines and prompted Glasgow to open a homicide investigation into the 2004 death of Savio, originally ruled an accident after her body was found in her bathtub.
Stacy Peterson has never been found, and no one has been charged with a crime in connection with her disappearance. However, statements she made to her pastor and a divorce attorney just before she went missing were critical factors in Drew Peterson being found guilty of Savio's death, jurors said.
Authorities allege that between September 2013 and December 2014, Peterson offered to pay an unnamed hit man to kill Glasgow. Investigators sought the help of an informant to secretly record Peterson's discussion of his plan.
But Peterson's attorneys claim the recordings are suspect because of the involvement of a Will County judge and members of Glasgow's office in obtaining permission from the informant to record the conversations, and they unsuccessfully sought to bar them from being played at trial.
The solicitation for murder trial is expected to last about a week, according to a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, which is assisting Randolph County with the prosecution. If convicted, Peterson could face 60 years in prison in addition to his sentence for Savio's murder.
The Associated Press contributed.
mwalberg@tribpub.com
