Immigrant gets 85 years in murder, disfigurement

July 29, 2006

BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter




The bullet tore into her face, shattering bone, obliterating teeth and slicing into her tongue.

In a Cook County courtroom in Maywood Friday, Joyce Schrippe presented that face to the man behind the gun, the same man who also murdered her close friend on a summer day two years ago in Franklin Park.

"I find you to be a coward, a liar and a very dangerous, evil man," Schrippe said in a slightly muffled voice as she glared at 69-year-old Zdzislaw "Wally" Kuchlewski. When she was done talking, Schrippe sat in silence for a few moments more, her chin jutting forward and her eyes fixed firmly on Kuchlewski.

A few minutes later Judge Thomas Tucker sentenced the Polish immigrant to 85 years in prison for the July 13 murder of Rita A. Hohmeier, 75, and the attempted murder of Schrippe.

Pushed to the brink?



Prosecutors say Kuchlewski opened fire with a .38-caliber pistol after being evicted from his condominium for unpaid fees. Kuchlewski had been locked in a long and bitter dispute with Hohmeier -- the condo association secretary -- over some unpaid fees.

With two handguns and a box of ammunition in his car, Kuchlewski was lying in wait for Hohmeier, who had just returned from a wake for her sister, prosecutors say.

During his May trial, the defense argued that Kuchlewski was a man who'd been pushed to the brink after seeing all of his possessions dumped onto the sidewalk on the day of the shootings. His actions were those of a deeply despondent man, attorney Scott Sherwin said. The jury convicted Kuchlewski of murder, attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm.

When it was his turn Thursday, the portly, balding Kuchlewski stood up and spoke through a Polish interpreter. For 20 minutes, he offered a blow-by-blow account of the legal squabbles over his condo, focusing more on a dispute over carpeting than the actual shootings.

But he said he felt suicidal when he saw his belongings piled on the sidewalk. He became enraged when he saw Hohmeier and Schrippe looking at his stuff, he said.

"They were looking at it and they were going, 'Ha, ha, ha,' " he said. "When they were laughing, I started to get aggravated again."

Kuchlewski did not apologize for the shootings.

'Bone-chilling'



Before Tucker handed down the sentence -- with little comment -- Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Mary Jo Murtaugh argued for a 100-year term for acts that were "bone-chilling, violent, heartless, senseless and tragic."

Pointing out that Kuchlewski has no chance of outliving his prison sentence, defense attorney Scott Sherwin told Tucker: "The minimum [[sentence] in his case is still a death sentence."

sesposito@suntimes.com