CHESTER, Ill., May 31 (UPI) -- A former Illinois police officer convicted of killing his wife a decade ago was found guilty Tuesday of attempting to hire a hitman to kill the prosecutor who put him behind bars.
After deliberating for just an hour, the jury convicted Drew Peterson on counts of solicitation of murder for hire and solicitation of murder for a plot to kill Will County (Ill.) State's Attorney James Glasgow.
Peterson, 62, a former suburban Chicago police officer, was sent to prison for the 2004 drowning death of Kathleen Savio, his third wife. Authorities did not suspect Peterson in Savio's death until after his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared three years later -- prompting police to further investigate the previous case.
In 2012, following Glasgow's prosecution, a jury found Peterson guilty in Savio's death and a judge sentenced him to 38 years in prison. Tuesday's murder-for-hire conviction could add another 60 years onto his term.
Prosecutors argued that Peterson tried to conspire with a fellow inmate to recruit a relative to kill Glasgow in retaliation for his incarceration. The prisoner, though, alerted authorities and subsequently wore a wire to record conversations he had with Peterson in 2014 -- the same year defense attorneys appealed the Savio murder conviction.
Peterson will be sentenced July 26.
