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…
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
A doctor will testify at a bond hearing next week that 18-year-old Mohammad Salahat is not dangerous or violent, says defense attorney Joel Brodsky. He'll then use this testimony to argue his client should get a 'reasonable' bond.
After sitting in jail for more than a year, one teen charged in the robbery and beating death of a Palos township couple could get the chance to go home. A bond hearing for Mohammad K. Salahat, 18, is set for 1 p.m. on Dec. 3 in Judge Neil J. Linehan's Bridgeview courtroom, defense attorney Joel Brodsky told Patch during a phone interview on Tuesday. Salahat is charged with murder in connection with stabbing and beating death of John and Maria Granat, along with three alleged accomplices: Christopher Wyma, 18; Ehab Qasem, 20; and the couple's son, John Granat, 18. The four men have been in custody without bond since the incident. Linehan could rescind a no-bond order for Salahat at the Dec. 3 hearing. Salahat has been described by …
Friday, November 9, 2012
Joel Brodsky, the defense attorney for one of four young men charged in the murder of a Palos Township couple says a psychological evaluation of Mohammed Salahat will prove he isn't violent.
Attorneys in the murder case against one of four men accused in the robbery and beating death of a Palos Township couple are still hashing out the details of allowing a doctor to testify about one of the defendant's mental state, the defense said Thursday. Mohammed Salahat, 18, is charged with murder in the stabbing and beating death of John and Maria Granat, along with three alleged accomplices: Christopher Wyma, 18; Ehab Qasem, 20; and the couple's son, John Granat, 18. Salahat has been described by prosecutors as the driver who remained in a car outside the home while the other three beat and stabbed the Granats to death in their bedroom on Sept. 11, 2011. His attorney, Joel Brodsky, has said previously that Salahat was "the fall guy" …
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
The public defender for John Granat, one of four teens accused in the armed robbery, home invasion and murder of his parents, appeared in court with his client for the first time Tuesday.
A public defender left a hearing in a Cook County courtroom Tuesday bogged down with an overstuffed accordion file folder and stacks of papers. It was LaFonzo Palmer's first day representing John Granat, 18, in the case against him and three other teens for the armed robbery and beating death of a Granat's parents, a Palos Township couple. Palmer didn't comment on the ongoing case and now joins the attorneys of the other three suspects, Mohammad Salahat, 18, Christopher Wyma, 18, and Ehab Qasem, 20. The four accused appeared in bright yellow Department of Corrections garb in Judge Neil Linehan's Bridgeview courtroom on Tuesday. Join the conversation. Like Palos Patch on Facebook and sign up for the breaking news alerts! Wyma and Granat …
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
All four defendants are due back in court on Sept. 18.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Police believe a Palos Heights dentist was murdered by her husband, who then shot himself in their Palos Park home. Patients recall the dentist many of them knew for years.
The death of Dr. Larisa Markewych has left many in the Palos area in shock. Investigators believe Markewych was killed by her husband as part of a murder-suicide in the couple's Palos Park home on April 10. Over the last two days neighbors and patients from Markewych's Palos Heights practice have been leaving comments on Palos Patch, our Facebook page and Markewych's own website. In tragic cases like this it is sometimes all to easy to allow the circumstances of a death to overshadow the bright spots of a life. Read through the comments below to get a better sense of the person Dr. Larisa Markewych was: "Dr Markewych was my Dentist for over 25 years. She was a very caring and gentle woman who always greeted me with a hug. We shared …
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Investigators believe Walter Puk shot his wife Larisa Markewych, and then killed himself in their Palos Park home. Police were called to the home for a verbal dispute in October of 2011.
From the outside they seemed like a family who had it all. Their newly remodeled Palos Park home was adorned with carefully planned landscaping and several cars sat in the driveway. That image was broken Tuesday afternoon when a quiet wooded Palos Park street was blocked off with police cars, yellow police tape now stretches across the well kept home. It was their 17-year-old son, a student at Stagg High School, who found the bodies of his parents in the bathroom of the home at 12315 Mohawk Road, police said. Larisa Markewych, 55, was dead on the floor, the victim of a gunshot wound, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. Nearby was her husband Walter Puk, 53, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, officials …
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Couple found dead in their Palos Park home Tuesday afternoon.
A man and woman were found dead in their Palos Park home Tuesday afternoon. Mohawk Road was closed all afternoon and into the night as investigators work out the details of what transpired. At 3:34 p.m. police received a call that a family member found a man and a woman unresponsive in their home, Palos Park Police Chief Joe Miller said. Emergency crews responded and both were pronounced dead at the scene, Miller said. Larisa Markewych, 55, and Walter Puk, 53 were pronounced dead, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office. Autopsies are being preformed Wednesday morning. Update: The Cook County Medical Examiner determined the deaths were the result of a murder-suicide. Police are not looking for a suspect. "The incident…
Friday, December 30, 2011
Prosecutors turned over documents, photographs, video and Facebook records to the lawyers defending the teens accused of killing John and Maria Granat in September.
Prosecutors trying four men indicted in the killing of a Palos Township couple handed defense attorneys some 200 additional pages of documents and a disc containing 1,100 photographs. John Granat, 17, is accused of enlisting Christopher Wyma, 17, Mohammad Salahat, 17, and Ehab Qasem, 19, to beat, stab and rob his parents in September. All four have been indicted on 75 counts related to first-degree murder, home invasion and armed robbery in the deaths of Granat's parents, John, 44, and Maria Granat, 42. This latest exchange of evidence included lab and inventory reports, search warrants, and cell phone and Facebook records, said assistant state's attorney Donna Norton. Files from Granat’s personal school computer, as well as copies of …
Farrell
1:28 pm on Saturday, January 19, 2013
Well, Sam, they all should have known better, especially the Granats' own son, but you're right. Hell does await the four. John Granat was the worst of them, being willing to kill his own parents. Even if he wasn't involved, and his parents were still murdered, what would have happened to him then? Foster homes? Crashing with relatives, friends? His whole world would still have been turned upside… more ›