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 …
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
The lawyers for 18-year-ol Mohammad Salahat also have issues with the search of his cell phone in Monday court hearing.
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'…
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 …
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 …
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Arguing that the accusations are unconstitutional, attorney Joel Brodsky filed a motion Thursday to dismiss murder charges against his client—one of four defendants whom police say were part of a plan to murder a Palos Township couple.
The attorney for one of four teens accused of beating a Palos Township couple to death says it's unconstitutional to charge his client with a crime that comes with a mandatory life in prison sentence. Joel Brodsky filed a motion on Thursday to dismiss the murder charges against 17-year-old Mohammad Salahat. Salahat has been described by prosecutors as the driver who remained in a car Sept. 11, 2011, outside the home of John and Maria Granat while Christopher Wyma, 17; Ehab Qasem, 19; and their son John Granat, 18; beat and stabbed the two to death in their bedroom. Brodsky has said previously that Salahat was "the fall guy" in the murders. However, prosecutors argue that Salahat was fully aware of what was happening inside the home. All …
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 …
Thursday, November 17, 2011
The four teen boys accused of killing a Palos Township couple on Sept. 11 have pled not guilty to the charges.
It was the first time that all four teen boys accused of killing a Palos Township couple appeared in court at the same time. Their attorneys all had the same thing to say, "not guilty." John Granat, 17, Christopher Wyma, 17, Ehab Qasem,19, and Mohammad Salahat, 17, appeared at the Bridgeview Courthouse for arraignment Thursday morning. Standing side by side all four pled not guilty to the murders of John and Maria Granat to Judge John Hynes. Read: Prosecutors: Son and Three Friends Plotted to Murder Palos Township Couple For Money, Bail Denied Although the four accused appeared together, they are likely to have differing defenses. Rick Beuke, the attorney for Granat, has said in the past that he believes the other three teens plotted to …
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12:08 am on Monday, April 22, 2013
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