Former handyman sentenced to life in prison for 1993 suburban Chicago restaurant slayings

Man sentenced to life in Ill. restaurant slayings

CHICAGO — A former handyman convicted of killing seven people during a robbery at a suburban Chicago fast-food restaurant in 1993 has been sentenced to life in prison.

Thirty-seven-year-old James Degorski was sentenced Wednesday. A jury had convicted him last month in the deaths of seven people at the Brown’s Chicken and Pasta Restaurant in Palatine in 1993.

The same jury recommended that Degorski be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ten jurors had wanted to sentence him to death, but two refused. A death penalty verdict must be unanimous.

The restaurant’s owners and five employees were shot and stabbed and their bodies stacked in a walk-in cooler and freezer in the robbery that netted less than $2,000.