Alleged Teen Getaway Driver in Brutal Palos Double Slay Wants Classes

When he was arrested after allegedly driving the getaway car for friends charged with beating and stabbing a Palos couple to death in October 2011, Mohammad Salahat was a student at Oak Lawn Community High School.

After a year and three months in jail, Salahat's lawyers asked Cook County Judge Neil Linehan if the 18-year-old can continue his studies.

The lawyers also set an April date to argue for the suppression of a statement Salahat supposedly made about the murders of the parents of his friend, John Granat, 18, and over issues with the search of Salahat's cell phone.

Salahat and Granat, along with Ehab Qasem, 21, of Hickory Hills and Christopher Wyma, 18, of Bridgeview, all face murder charges for allegedly beating and stabbing Granat's parents to death in their bedroom. The four were arrested and have been held without bond at the Cook County Jail since shortly after the killings.

Granat, Qasem and Wyma, who all attended Stagg High School in Palos Hills, will be at the Bridgeview Courthouse March 8.

Salahat's attorneys made the first move to have their client tried separately, but the lawyers representing the other three defendants either followed suit or expressed the intention to do so last month.

While prosecutors do not contend Salahat ever entered the Granats' Palos Township home, they claim he knew full well what his friends were up to. Salahat also allegedly received $4,000 after the murder, and proceeded to splurge at fine restaurants and on video game shopping sprees.

Granat's parents, John Granat, 44, and Maria Granat, 42, were found dead in their blood-spattered bedroom. Their killers beat and stabbed them to death.

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