http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-sliwinski_weboct27,0,3776071.story?coll=chi_tab01_layoutAnd so the P-pass was approved today....
By Deborah Horan, Susan Kuczka and Andrew L. Wang | Tribune staff reporters
6:48 PM CDT, October 26, 2007
A young woman who rammed her car into another in an attempt to commit suicide but instead killed three musicians was found guilty but mentally ill in Cook County's Skokie courthouse this afternoon.
The prosecution had charged Jeanette Sliwinski, 25, with three counts of first-degree murder, but the judge convicted her of the lesser charge of reckless homicide. In Illinois, a conviction of guilty but mentally ill means she will receive treatment while serving her sentence.
The former trade-show model from Morton Grove pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. She waived her right to a jury trial, leaving the case in the hands of Circuit Judge Garritt Howard.
"I do believe the defendant was trying to kill herself. She put the accelerator to the floor. She never touched the brakes," said Howard as he announced the verdict. "I believe the defendant was being truthful when she said she only intended to hurt herself and not anyone else."
But he did not believe she was psychotic. He also said he believed she "outright fabricates" some of the details of what happened.
"The defendant is a very poor historian," Howard said.
Defense attorney Tom Breen said: "I'm absolutely delighted the judge felt first-degree murder was not proven and the judge acknowledged she was a deeply disturbed woman."
Her family said little in the moments after the verdict.
"We would have obviously all hoped for a verdict of innocent because of illness," said Toni Randle, the family spokesman.
During testimony this week, several defense witnesses described Sliwinski as psychotic, while others called by the prosecution suggested that her strange behavior was contrived, or demonstrated mental illness that didn't meet the legal definition of insanity.
Michael Dahlquist, 39, John Glick, 35, and Douglas Meis, 29, all Chicago residents and musicians, were at a stop light on Dempster Street and Niles Center Road in Skokie in July 2005 when Sliwinski's Mustang barreled into their Honda Civic at 87 m.p.h., prosecutors said.
In testimony last week, psychiatrists who interviewed Sliwinski in jail said she told them she doesn't remember the crash.
But police investigators testified that immediately after the wreck, Sliwinski said she had wanted to commit suicide after a fight with her mother earlier in the day. She said she jumped in her car, drove about a mile east on Dempster at 70 m.p.h. and floored the accelerator to nearly 90 m.p.h. when she saw traffic stopped in front of her at Niles Center.
She slammed into a stopped Honda Civic, flipping both cars. Glick was thrown from the Honda and pronounced dead on the scene. Dahlquist and Meis were trapped inside the vehicle and were pronounced dead at local hospitals.
The musicians' deaths devastated not just those who knew them but fans who loved their music.
Dahlquist played drums for Silkworm, a band that had played around the Midwest as well as in England, Italy and Japan. After he died the group stopped playing shows together. Glick played guitar and sang with the Returnables, which also disbanded after the crash. Meis played drums with Glick's wife in The Dials, a group that continued performing.
Dahlquist, Glick and Meis worked together at Shure Inc. in Niles, which makes microphones and other audio electronic products. They were on their lunch break when the crash occurred.
Friends and family members have tried to keep the memory of the men alive, posting on Internet message boards and Web sites, recording tribute albums and organizing benefit shows.
"For many of us, the passing of a single day without one of these men was difficult to endure," read a statement on the Web site for The Dials. "They will be longed for always."
Sentencing is set for Nov. 26.