Lawyer for Teen Accused of Killing His Parents Drops Out
Unable to pay private attorneys, two of the four young men charged with the 2011 murder of John and Maria Granat have opted for the free services of the Cook County Public Defender's Office.
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Richard Beuke became the second private attorney on Wednesday to withdraw from the Granat murder case, citing the financial toll his services imposed on his young client.
“He can’t afford it,” Beuke said of John Granat, 18, who has been accused of enlisting three friends to kill and rob his parents. The attorney cut off an interview at the Bridgeview courthouse Wednesday by adding, “That’s the sole reason.”
In court, Beuke told Judge Neil Linehan that he made the decision to leave after several discussions with surviving members of the Granat family, some of whom have been present at every hearing. Granat’s aunt politely declined to comment.
John Russell, another private attorney, left the case in April, nine months after authorities first named his client, Christopher Wyma, and two other young men, Mohammad Salahat and Ehab Qasem, as co-conspirators and participants in the murder and robbery of Granat's parents inside their Palos Township home.
At the time, Wyma’s mother said she could no longer afford to pay Russell. He was replaced by assistant public defender Dan Nolan.
The Cook County Public Defender’s Office was also appointed to represent Granat, though an attorney was not immediately assigned.
A veteran criminal defense attorney, Beuke defended former Chicago police detective Jon Burge and is currently representing Allan Kustok, an Orland Park man accused of killing his wife.
As of April, prosecutors on the Granat case had given defense teams more than 850 pages of reports and records, in addition to a dozen discs containing digital media. Subpoenas have since been filed for records of each man’s cell phone—or in Qasem’s case, cell phones.
Additional details have surfaced by way of the indictment, which shows that prosecutors are seeking prison sentences longer than the statutes allow because “the murder was committed in cold, calculated and premeditated manner…”
Each man was indicted late last year on 75 counts related to first-degree murder, home invasion and armed robbery because each man was aware of “a preconceived plan, scheme or design to take human life by unlawful means, and the conduct of the defendants created a reasonable expectation that the death of a human being would result there from…”
Salahat’s attorney, Joel Brodsky, has suggested that the 16-year-old high school junior had only been along for the ride. In March, Judge Linehan agreed to let Dr. Alan Jaffe and an assistant conduct three one-hour interviews and administer five eight-hour personality and intelligence tests. They will explore not whether Salahat is sane enough for trial, according to Brodsky, but the more subtle issue of whether he understood what was happening when he acted as driver.
Granat is due back in court on July 19 with new counsel, his co-defendants and a cadre of jailers who guard the skinny, handcuffed adolescents.
Read all Patch's past coverage of the Granat murders and subsequent court hearings.
- Accused of Double-Murder, Teens Plead Not Guilty
- Lawyer: Alleged Driver Was Almost The Third Victim in the Granat Killings
- Teens Charged in Palos Township Beating Deaths Ordered to Submit DNA
- Prosecutors: Son and Three Friends Plotted to Murder Palos Township Couple For Money, Bail Denied
- Hundreds Mourn Loss of John and Maria Granat
Mom
8:24 pm on Wednesday, June 27, 2012
I hope they all burn in hell.
Alexandria
7:19 pm on Sunday, September 23, 2012
@Mom... Hopefully you burn in hell. How dare you say that about someone you don't even know.
TheUNowen
9:13 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
@Alexandra, so which little murderer are you related too?
Rami Zeidan
8:36 pm on Wednesday, June 27, 2012
I remember kickin ehabs ass back in the day. Hope they all suffer.
Reconcilation
11:27 pm on Wednesday, June 27, 2012
What a disgrace these four, so called "human beings" are. It's a shame that a thought like this was actually considered and acted out by these four. As much as it seems like these guys' inevitable future just keeps getting prolonged, it will come! Hopefully a nightmarish future at that, for that's all they deserve. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and family of the Granat family, excluding "son", John Granat, may no rightful human show sympathy for you.
gfallowell
4:56 pm on Sunday, July 1, 2012
Shut up! If this were your family member or friend you would leave an entirely different comment. And don't even bother to dispute it. Karma. We all have, keep that in mind.
TheUNowen
9:13 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
If I were related to any of this scum I would be deeply ashamed!
mom
12:40 pm on Monday, July 2, 2012
gfallowell get with the program. If that were my family member and he killed my relives I would stay as far away from him as possible. You know they did it!
Mom
3:08 pm on Monday, July 2, 2012
I wonder at what point they all sat down and said, "Damn, this is such a great idea!" It absolutely sickens me what these animals did and let's just hope they do not get off on a "technicality". John and Maria deserve SOOOO much better than that! Oh and gfallowell, I have to agree with the other "mom" in this conversation. Family member or not, what they did was beyond human, it was pre-planned and they don't deserve to live. Unfortunately, us Illinois citizens will have to pay for these animals for the rest of their pathetic lives.
Shocked.
11:55 pm on Monday, July 23, 2012
...ended these peoples lives for a lousy $4K. That's $1000 each divided by 50 years works out to a whopping $ 20/year.
There is no rehabilitating sick and stupid.
Mom
9:04 am on Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Where did you hear $4K? I thought they stole $35K and returned $21K of it?
Alexandria
9:46 pm on Sunday, August 19, 2012
@Schocked... Please get your facts straight. John had 4,000 on him when he was pulled over by the police for a broken taillight. 35,000 was spilt among the four of them, which would have been around 8,000 a piece.
Morgan
12:49 am on Thursday, July 26, 2012
Whats sad is you guys talking bad about these kids is ignorant. Who are you to day theyre 'bad'. You dont judge some one cause you dont know their story. I bet if this was your niece,nepew, godchild, child you'd be saying a whole different story. No one even knows if the son had anything to do with it. The cops can't even get their stories straight. Before your so quick to judge remember you dont know what the persons gone through. Pure ignorance.
Alexandria
3:44 pm on Thursday, September 20, 2012
@Morgan I totally agree with you. People are so judgemental of John, and the don't even know him. It really breaks my heart.
TheUNowen
9:17 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
@Morgan and Alexandra who the fuk are you trying to kid, they did it, they are guilty and should, burn and rot in hell for eternity! Listen to the kids 911 call, If you found your parents brutally murdered and beaten to death would you be so calm and collected talking to the police?! I am a man and if i found my parents slain like that I would be so shaken and upset!!!
Mikayla
6:01 pm on Thursday, July 26, 2012
Denial is a hard thing to overcome. I went through this with a close family member several years back (also murdered his parents in Bartlett, IL - some of you may remember the story, very similar to this one). I didn't want to accept it either. I, too, knew a totally different side of Eric (my friend who committed the murders with his friend). Truth of the matter is, as I got older, I realized over time that sociopaths and those who suffer from severe psychological orders usually hide that side of them. They are able to live completely normal lives on the outside. I believe this is the case with John Granat. You have a child who suffered from severe depression inside his mind, probably was suicidal at points, and more than likely abused drugs to try and self-medicate. It's sad on many different levels, this story. God bless his parents for not being able to see the problem and cry for help in him and may they rest in peace for this senseless, horrific act committed by their only child.
TheUNowen
9:21 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
I would never represent someone so obviously guilty, first of all I'd have to resist my temptation to punch that kid in his fuking face!