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Thread: D'Andre Howard Gets Three Life Sentences Plus 60 Years in 2009 IL Slayings of Girlfriend's Family

  1. #1
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    D'Andre Howard Gets Three Life Sentences Plus 60 Years in 2009 IL Slayings of Girlfriend's Family


    Laura Engelhardt, center, and her father,
    Alan Engelhardt, top left, were murdered
    in their Hoffman Estates home in April 2009.
    Shelly Engelhardt, top right, was wounded
    and her mother Marlene Gacek was killed.


    Marlene Gacek


    D'Andre Howard


    State to seek death penalty in NW suburban triple murder

    The state will seek the death penalty against a northwest suburban man accused of the gruesome stabbings of his girlfriend's father, sister and grandmother last April.

    D'Andre Howard, 20, of Hoffman Estates was indicted on 15 counts of first-degree murder, eight counts of aggravated kidnapping, four counts of unlawful restraint, two counts of aggravated battery and one count of attempted first-degree murder, according to Cook County State’s Attorney’s office spokesman Andy Conklin.

    The state on Monday announced it will seek the death penalty in the case, according to state's attorney's office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton. Howard is scheduled for a status hearing Oct. 16.

    He is accused of fatally stabbing Alan Engelhardt, 57; Laura Engelhardt, 18; and Marlene Gacek, 73, on April 17 at his girlfriend’s family’s home in the 1000 block of North Bluebonnet Lane in Hoffman Estates.

    Prosecutors said Howard had been feuding with his 23-year-old girlfriend for several days when he kicked her and their eight-month-old baby out of their apartment. The woman -- identified by a neighbor as Amanda Engelhardt -- went to stay with her parents and other relatives.

    But at 1:30 a.m. on April 17, Howard allegedly went to the home and a quarrel ensued. He allegedly grabbed a knife from the kitchen and ended up stabbing Engelhardt’s father and maternal grandmother. Both died at the scene, authorities said.

    He also tied up his girlfriend’s sister Laura, but later untied her, prosecutors said. The Conant High School senior managed to stab him in the arm before being stabbed. Howard allegedly critically wounded his girlfriend’s 52-year-old mother, who was hospitalized, and restrained her 85-year-old paternal grandmother.

    Howard did not injure his girlfriend or the baby, but did not allow her to call authorities for 45 minutes, and even ripped some phone jacks out of the wall to stop her, prosecutors said. She eventually called and was still on the phone when police arrived, prosecutors said.

    Laura Engelhardt was conscious and able to tell them what happened, but she died at a hospital later that day.

    http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1770528,w-death-penalty-triple-murder-091409.article

  2. #2
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    Jurors will see a video recording of D'Andre Howard recounting for police his version of what happened the night three members of a Hoffman Estates family were slain in their home.

    A Cook County judge on Monday denied defense attorneys' motion to suppress statements made by Howard, charged with the April 17, 2009, slayings of 18-year-old Conant High School senior Laura Engelhardt, her father Alan Engelhardt, 57, and Alan's mother-in-law Marlene Gacek, 73.

    Howard faces first-degree murder charges in the Engelhardt family deaths. He also faces a charge of attempted murder of Shelly Engelhardt, Laura's mother and Alan's wife, who was injured in the attacks but recovered.

    Judge Ellen Mandeltort's ruling came after several hearings held over the summer during which prosecutors played a DVD of Howard's nearly three-hour interview with Hoffman Estates police detectives. During the rambling, frequently inaudible interview, Howard, 23, said he stabbed Laura Engelhardt in self-defense after they engaged in horseplay with a knife.

    Howard pantomimed for detectives how he brandished a sword that belonged to the Engelhardt family, while showing off his “moves” to Laura Engelhardt. He also claimed to have been demonstrating tricks with a knife he retrieved from the kitchen.

    The other victims were stabbed in subsequent struggles over the knife, he said.

    “I know I didn't do anything wrong,” Howard said on the video recording, repeatedly insisting he was not under arrest and frequently yelling out for Amanda Engelhardt, who was then his girlfriend, and for their daughter.

    “You can't withhold my child. This is illegal,” he said.

    Prosecutors rejected Howard's self-defense claims, saying he murdered family members after he argued with Amanda. Amanda and the child were at the house the night of the murders but were not injured. Son Jeff Engelhardt was away at college at the time.

    Cook County Assistant Public Defender Jim Mullenix argued that Howard was not properly advised of his Miranda rights at the scene and at the hospital where paramedics took him for treatment for a stab wound to his arm. As a result, his statements should not be admitted into evidence, Mullenix said.

    “Clearly the defendant was asking for a lawyer. Clearly he was in custody,” Mullenix said. “He was not free to leave.”

    Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Maria McCarthy, however, insisted Howard was not in custody at the scene or at the hospital, and so Miranda did not apply.

    Moreover, she argued, Howard did not clearly ask for a lawyer, saying only, “I have a right to an attorney.”

    “Even a clear request for an attorney or a clear statement does not have to be honored since Miranda did not apply at the time,” said McCarthy, who cited numerous appellate court decisions during her argument.

    Announcing her ruling, Mandeltort offered a meticulous account of the events of April 17, 2009, from the early morning 911 call to police to the final moments of the interview with police some eight hours later.

    Howard “understood his Miranda rights and knowingly and voluntarily waived his rights,” said Mandeltort, referring to the recording where police read Howard his rights and he initialed each one.

    Moreover, Howard's mistaken belief that he was not under arrest is not relevant, said Mandeltort, who suggested that Howard “confused being under arrest with being charged with a crime.”

    Howard next appears in court on Oct. 11.

    http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2...ews/709269839/

  3. #3
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    November 26, 2013

    Man accused in '09 triple murder might go to trial next year

    A man accused of killing three members of a Hoffman Estates family in a knife attack is now scheduled to stand trial next spring, nearly five years after his arrest in 2009.

    Judge Ellen Mandeltort today set March 18 as the tentative date to try 25-year-old D’Andre Howard on multiple counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder and aggravated kidnapping.

    Howard is charged with killing Laura Engelhardt, 18; her father, Alan Engelhardt, 57; and her grandmother, Marlene Gacek, 73, in their Hoffman Estates home in April 2009.

    Shelley Engelhardt, Laura Engelhardt’s mother and Gacek’s daughter, also was stabbed but survived the attack, authorities said.

    Prosecutors Maria McCarthy and Mike Gerber asked Mandeltort to set the date after clearing a number of hurdles in the case, including a change of defense attorney.

    Howard’s new lawyer, assistant public defender Deana Binstock, agreed to the date.

    “We’re hoping that we will be able to begin the trial then,” said Binstock after the hearing. “It has taken time because I had to jump into the case and get up to speed.”

    Binstock took over as Howard’s attorney after Jim Mullenix retired from the Cook County Public Defender’s Office in January.

    Howard was arrested at the scene of the crime after Laura’s sister Amanda Engelhardt, Howard’s girlfriend and the mother of his child, called police, authorities said. She and the child were at the scene but were not harmed, authorities said.

    The incident began when Amanda Engelhardt fled the Schaumburg apartment she shared with Howard and went to the Englehardt home, authorities said. Howard followed and began a fight that ended with the murders, authorities allege.

    Howard has been in custody since his arrest.

    http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2...nda-engelhardt

  4. #4
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    Triple murder trial to begin Tuesday

    By Lisa Black and George Houde, Chicago Tribune

    Five years have passed since the slaying of Jeff Engelhardt's 18-year-old sister, father and grandmother in the family's Hoffman Estates home.

    Engelhardt, away at college at the time of the attack, has had much time to consider the fate of the murder suspect, D'Andre Howard, a man once welcomed into the family.

    With Howard's trial scheduled to begin Tuesday, Engelhardt, 25, noted last week that "there is a sense of relief that it's finally here."

    "There have been frustrating and challenging times during the five years of waiting, but we have continued to have great support from our family and friends," Engelhardt said. He has since graduated from school, married and works as a northwest suburban journalist.

    Howard, 26, who has been in custody since his arrest at the crime scene in April 2009, is charged with first-degree murder in the killings of Laura Engelhardt, 18, her father, Alan Engelhardt, 57, and her grandmother, Marlene Gacek, 73. He also faces attempted murder and unlawful restraint charges.

    Prosecutors said an enraged Howard stabbed the family members after an argument with Amanda Engelhardt, 28, his live-in fiance and the mother of their infant daughter. She and her mother, Shelly, who was also stabbed and seriously wounded, are expected to be key witnesses at Howard's trial.

    Amanda Engelhardt and Howard had once planned to marry in the backyard of the family home. Now, her family is helping her raise the couple's daughter, Stelliah.

    "(Shelly's) concern is about Amanda right now, being there to give Amanda strength in the midst of all this going on," said the Rev. Jerry Hays, senior pastor at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Schaumburg.

    "(Shelly) has said to me, 'I just don't see how people without faith in Jesus can get through trials such as this,'" Hays said.

    Though Howard has been found competent to stand trial by court-appointed psychiatric experts, Assistant Public Defenders Deana Binstock and Georgeena Carson have opted to present an insanity defense and have said they won't contest the fact that Howard stabbed the victims.

    Judge Ellen Mandeltort has ruled that the defense will be able to call several witnesses to testify about Howard's mental state at the time of the homicides but denied the request to call witnesses from his more distant past.

    Mandeltort agreed to a prosecution request to allow the testimony of two Schaumburg police officers who arrested Howard just hours before the killings. Prosecutors said the officers will testify that Howard was alert and rational at the time.

    Howard, who spent much of his upbringing in the state's foster care system, changed homes at least 10 times before he turned 18. He sometimes became violent with others and displayed sexually inappropriate behavior, an evaluation showed. As a teenager, he was arrested for criminal sexual abuse.

    The case has dragged on through numerous psychiatric evaluations of Howard, changes in defense lawyers and hearings to suppress evidence, including his videotaped statement to police. Howard has sometimes refused to enter the courtroom, prolonging the proceedings.

    After Howard's arrest, prosecutors told the surviving family members that they would seek the death penalty, but capital punishment was abolished in Illinois in March 2011. Just a few months before, Jeff Engelhardt wrote an essay for the Daily Herald pondering whether he supported a death sentence for Howard.

    "I live with what happened every day and have mulled over what I would like to see become of the man I believe took my family away," he wrote. "My vision was blurred for a while, but the decision became very clear after I remembered where I came from. ... And as my father's son, that means I choose the path of forgiveness."

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,5415419.story

  5. #5
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    July 9, 2014

    Man gets 3 life sentences plus 60 years for Hoffman Estates triple murder

    The man who murdered three members of a Hoffman Estates family and seriously wounded another in a 2009 knife attack was sentenced today to three life sentences without parole plus an additional 60 years.

    D’Andre Howard, 26, showed no emotion as Cook County Judge Ellen Mandeltort delivered the sentence in a crowded Rolling Meadows courtroom.

    Howard, who was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder in June, faced a mandatory life sentence in the stabbing deaths of Laura Engelhardt, 18; her father Alan Engelhardt, 57; and her grandmother Marlene Gacek, 73; and the attack on Laura’s mother, Shelly Engelhardt, who survived with serious injuries.

    “We’re just glad it’s over,” Shelly Englehardt said after the hearing.

    In court, Shelly Engelhardt said her family will continue to be strong.

    “I stand here now to let you know that good has triumphed over evil once more,” she said. “The wounds and pain you have inflicted on us have not weakened our family and will not define our future.”

    Assistant public defender Deana Binstock asked for leniency for Howard, saying he suffered from mental illness and “never had a chance in life.”

    Assistant state’s attorney Maria McCarthy asked for the maximum sentence, saying Howard planned the murders and made family members “watch their loved ones dead and dying” in the home.

    Mandeltort said the Engelhardt family welcomed Howard into its home and tried to give him support and a chance in life.

    “His response was to murder three members of that family,” she said in handing down the sentence.

    Asked if he wanted to say anything, Howard told Mandeltort, “Nope.”

    His mother, Constance Taylor, handed reporters a written note after the hearing. It said, in part, “I would like to apologize to the (Englehardt) family for the pain that my son has caused. The family will remain in my prayers. We all have suffered through this trying time.”

    Howard was taken from Taylor when he was 6 and became a ward of the state for the rest of his childhood. He met Amanda Engelhardt at a party in 2006 and they became involved, according to Amanda’s testimony during the June trial. Amanda Engelhardt did not testify at the sentencing.

    Jeff Engelhardt, brother of Laura and Amanda, was at college when the murders occurred and now works as a reporter for the Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake.

    In a victim impact statement, Jeff Engelhardt said he wanted Howard to understand what he did to the family.

    “I don’t want to hate you. I want you to try hard every day to think about the people you killed and who they were,” he said.

    The victims were found on April 17, 2009, in their home on Bluebonnet Lane in Hoffman Estates along with Howard, who was arrested the same day.

    During the June trial, Howard spent about three hours testifying in his own defense, saying he was hearing voices and loud noises in his head when he tied up his fiancée Amanda Engelhardt and her mother Shelly Engelhardt and told them he was going to torture and murder the family in front of them.

    When Laura Engelhardt woke up, Howard tied her up, too, but when he untied her briefly, she wrestled the knife from him and stabbed him superficially in the arm. That apparently set him off, and he started to wave his arms wildly, stabbing Laura and Shelly Engelhardt multiple times.

    He later attacked Gacek and Alan Engelhardt as they each emerged from their upstairs bedrooms.

    Howard has been in custody since the murders. Amanda Engelhardt, who was present but not injured during the attack, and Shelly Engelhardt both testified against Howard at the trial. The two of them still live in the home where the attack took place, along with Howard and Amanda’s daughter.

    One of Howard’s public defenders said at the time that the verdict will be appealed because the judge had not allowed them to present more information about Howard’s past struggles with mental illness.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburb...709-story.html

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