Lake County prosecutors said this afternoon they intend to seek the death penalty against the man accused of strangling the manager of a Lindenhurst Burger King last year during a robbery.
James Ealy showed little reaction as prosecutor Jeff Pavletic told the judge of the decision. Afterward Pavletic said court rules prohibited him from talking about how his office reached the decision, which comes more than a year after the slaying of Mary Hutchison of Trevor, Wis.
"We were waiting for all the information so that all relevant factors could be considered," Pavletic said outside the courtroom.
Assistant Public Defender Keith Grant declined to speak with reporters after the hearing.
Ealy, 43, of Lake Villa is charged with driving by the Burger King early on Nov. 27, 2006, and deciding to rob the restaurant where he used to work after seeing Hutchison's car there, prosecutors have said. He allegedly beat Hutchison and used the bow tie from her uniform to strangle her.
In 1982, Ealy was 17 and a resident of Rockwell Gardens, a Chicago Housing Authority complex on the West Side, when he was arrested for strangling Kristina Parker, 33; her two daughters, Mary Anne, 15, and Cora, 12; and Mary Anne's son, Jontae, 3.
He was sentenced to life in prison without parole, but his conviction was overturned in 1986 by appellate judges who ruled Chicago police arrested Ealy without probable cause and illegally searched his home. The court also threw out Ealy's confession after finding that detectives held him for 18 hours and denied him food, water and access to a bathroom before he signed the statement.
Prosecutors decided not to retry Ealy. At the time his conviction was overturned, Ealy was serving a 23-year sentence for rape, but he was paroled in 1993. In 1996, he was convicted of unlawful restraint and gun charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was paroled in 1999.
Hutchison's family has sued Burger King and the franchisee that operated the north suburban location. The restaurant has since closed.
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