Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Lawyers for one of four charged with brutally murdering a Palos Township couple received files and photo disks.
The lawyers for the youngest of four pals charged with the brutal murder of a Palos couple received medical files and photo evidence during a brief hearing Monday morning at the Bridgeview courthouse. Alleged getaway driver Mohammad Salahat, 18, was taken from the Cook County jail to the courthouse for the hearing. He beamed at two women in the gallery as he was led into the courtroom. Salahat was charged with murder in connection with the September 2011 slayings of John and Maria Granat. The couple was found beaten and stabbed to death in the blood-spattered bedroom of their Palos Township home. But Salahat, who was 16 at the time of the slayings, was merely the wheelman for a murder crew, police said. The Granat's son, John Granat, 19—…
Thursday, April 25, 2013
The three attorneys individually representing three men accused of killing John and Maria Granat received large quantities of reports from prosecution at a court hearing Friday.
Stuffed folders of medical reports were given over to three defense attorneys individually representing three defendants accused of killing Palos Township couple John and Maria Granat. Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Donna Norton said at a court hearing Friday in front of Judge Neil Linehan that the handed-over discovery also contained digital photos from the medical examiner’s office, cell phone analysis and other documents. Norton said she is still waiting on other records for 18-year-old Christopher Wyma, as well as DNA analysis discussed at the March hearing, but has no outstanding subpoenas in the case. Public defender LaFonze Palmer, who is representing 18-year-old John Granat, Wyma’s attorney Dan Nolan, and John Eannace who …
Thursday, April 4, 2013
The lawyer for a teen charged with murder in connection with the brutal slaying of a friend's parents tried and failed to have the case dismissed.
The lawyer for the youngest of four pals charged with the brutal murder of a Palos couple failed to convince a judge to dismiss the case against his client. Joel Brodsky, the attorney for 18-year-old Mohammad Salahat, argued during a Thursday morning hearing at the Bridgeview courthouse that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juveniles cannot be sentenced to life in prison without parole. Salahat was 16—legally a juvenile—when he was charged as an adult with the September 2011 murders of John and Maria Granat. If convicted of the double murder, Salahat faces a sentence of life in prison, Brodsky said, and therefore the case against him must be dismissed. Assistant State's Attorney Donna Norton called Brodsky's argument "both irrational and …
Saturday, March 9, 2013
A Plainfield murder trial ended with a guilty verdict on the week's last day—and much, much more, in this edition of Court Supervision.
A week-long murder trial wrapped up with a guilty verdict Friday afternoon. The jury took two days to convict Ricardo Gutierrez, 23, of first-degree murder. Gutierrez gunned down Javier Barrios in October 2007 in Plainfield. Barrios was 18 when he was killed. Jury selection started Monday in the Will County Courthouse. Gutierrez's attorneys, Jeff Tomczak and Paul Napolski, said the killing was carried out in self-defense. That was just one of the things going on in court last week. There was also: Find all these stories and more on our Facebook page
Friday, March 8, 2013
Three of the four young men charged with the vicious 2011 murder of John and Maria Granat appeared in court Friday.
Prosecutors got the go-ahead to have Illinois State Police technicians perform DNA testing on a shred of T-shirt allegedly worn by a Bridgeview man when he helped a pal kill his parents. The portion of 18-year-old Christopher Wyma's shirt will be destroyed by the testing, prosecutors said. Wyma's attorney, Dan Nolan, did not object to the procedure. Nolan said there would still be more shirt remaining and the fabric bears additional stains that also can be tested. Wyma was taken from the Cook County jail to the Bridgeview Courthouse for the brief hearing along with co-defendants John Granat, 18, of Palos Township, and Ehab Qasem, 21, of Hickory Hills. A fourth defendant, Mohammad Salahat, 18, of Chicago Ridge, appeared in court alone a …
Monday, February 25, 2013
The lawyers for 18-year-ol Mohammad Salahat also have issues with the search of his cell phone.
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'…
Friday, January 25, 2013
Christopher Wyma, 18, of Bridgeview, Ehab Qasem, 21, of Hickory Hills, and John Granat, 18, of Palos Township, appeared in court Friday.
Three defendants in a brutal Palos Township double murder are seeking separate trials. Attorneys for Christopher Wyma, 18, of Bridgeview, and Ehab Qasem, 21, of Hickory Hills filed motions requesting separation during a court appearance Friday. The public defender representing another of the accused, John Granat, 18, has yet to file but intends to soon. The three men are charged with murder along with 18-year-old Mohammad Salahat of Chicago Ridge. They are accused of beating and stabbing Granat's parents to death while they slept in their bedroom. Salahat, who is represented by former Drew Peterson attorney Joel Brodsky, already was heading toward his own trial. Chicago attorney Mohammad Ramadan joined Brodsky in Salahat's defense earlier …
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
A new lawyer has joined the case of a former Oak Lawn Community High School student charged with helping to kill the mother and father of a friend.
The case against a Chicago Ridge teen charged with murder for allegedly driving the getaway car after the cowardly killing of a pal's sleeping parents was pushed back after a new lawyer jumped on board Tuesday. Chicago attorney Mohammad Ramadan entered his appearance but still has to get "up to speed" with the case against 18-year-old Mohammad Salahat, said Joel Brodsky, a lawyer already representing the teen. Salahat and three other young men—John Granat, 18, of Palos Township, Christopher Wyma, 18, of Bridgeview, and Ehab Qasem, 21, of Hickory Hills—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 …
Friday, December 21, 2012
A Cook County judge said Thursday he sees no reason to lift a no bail order for Mohammed Salahat.
A Chicago Ridge man accused of murder won't be leaving jail anytime soon. A Cook County judge on Thursday refused to set a bond for Mohammad Salahat, charged in the 2011 robbery and beating death of a Palos Township couple. Salahat, 18, along with three others, are being held in the murder of John and Martha Granat on Sept. 11, 2011. Christopher Wyma, 18; Ehab Qasem, 20; and the couple's son, John Granat, 18, are his co-defendants. All four men have been in custody without bond since the incident. Salahat has been described by prosecutors as the driver who remained in a car outside the home while the other three killed the Granats in their bedroom. Prosecutors allege that Salahat, 16 years old at the time, was aware of what was going on …
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
The family of Mohammed Salahat, who is accused in the 2011 Granat murders, is prepared to put up property valued at $150,000 to get him out of jail.
A battery of psychological evaluations administered to a defendant in the Granat murders case this summer show that he isn't prone to violence and would not present a danger to himself or the community should he be released on bond, a psychiatrist testified Monday. Dr. Alan M. Jaffe, a professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told a judge Monday the tests, given to Mohammed Salahat, 18, from April to June, also showed he has extreme love and loyalty toward his family. "I think the psychological evaluation is very comprehensive," Jaffe said on the stand. "[My opinion] is not a belief. Based on empirical data, I do not think Mohammad Salahat would pose any risk of flight…
Victoria Talerico
6:23 am on Tuesday, April 30, 2013
All 4 should get the death penalty. Maybe Salahat should receive some leniency. He was in the get away car and cooperated with police AFTER being caught. John Granat was adopted by these people and given a wonderful life. He repayed them with brutality and unspeakable violence. Disgusting. Wyma's father is a police officer. What went wrong there? Something didn't connect regarding right and wrong… more ›