Ex-Chicago cop jailed for murder plot
Print Edition
A FORMER Chicago police officer who spent years on death row before his murder conviction was overturned has been sentenced to life in prison plus five years for a more recent grisly plot to kill a businessman.
Steve Mandell on Thursday loudly proclaimed his innocence during a 30-minute speech, calling the case against him “phantasmagorically ridiculous,” The Chicago Sun-Times reported.
But US District Judge Amy St Eve called the 64-year-old’s actions “evil” and said he has a “complete disregard for human life.” “The public needs protecting from you,” St Eve said.
Mandell was arrested in 2012 and was convicted in February of plotting to kidnap, torture, extort money, then kill and dismember suburban Chicago businessman Steve Campbell.
Authorities say he wanted Campbell to transfer ownership of 25 buildings to him.
Prosecutors’ case included video of Mandell and an accomplice laughing as they discussed how they would use a razor blade on Campbell’s body.
Also captured on video was a room prosecutors say Mandell intended to use as a torture chamber that included a man-sized butcher’s block. St Eve found his demeanor on the video “chilling.” “The glee on your face was very apparent,” she said.
Federal officers arrested Mandell and his accomplice shortly before they planned to abduct Campbell and carry out the scheme.
Mandell was sentenced to death for the 1990 killing of Jimmy Pellegrino, a suburban Chicago trucking company owner. That conviction was overturned on appeal and Mandell was freed.
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