WHEATON – Bradley Justice was sentenced this afternoon to 81 years in prison in the beating death of Karen Hassan of St. Charles.
DuPage County Judge Peter Dockery called 31-year-old Justice's crime, "vicious" and "deliberate" when handing down the sentence.
Justice pleaded guilty in April to first-degree murder and armed robbery in the November 2006 incident.
Justice beat Hassan repeatedly with a hammer and then robbed her of her cell phone and cash after Hassan delivered a pizza and chicken wings to Justice, according to prosecutors.
The incident took place in a secluded, industrial area near Route 64 and Powis Road, just outside West Chicago and over the Kane-DuPage county line.
During today's sentencing hearing, Assistant State's Attorney Robert Berlin read a statement provided by Hassan's 23-year-old son, Nick.
He said he and his three brothers and are "lost and empty" without their mother.
"I wake up each morning with the hideous vision of my mother's brutal murder in my mind," the statement read. "I wake up hoping that it is all a nightmare, only to find the horrible truth that is not."
Public Defender Robert Miller said Justice, who chose not to speak at the hearing, takes full responsibility, but claims he did not intend to kill Hassan. Instead, Justice beat her with the hammer after she saw cocaine in the home where he had the pizza delivered, causing Justice, who was coming down off a "cocaine binge" and hadn't slept for days, to panic, Miller said.
Miller also referenced Justice's history of drug addiction.
Dockery could have sentenced Justice to between 20 years and natural life in prison. He sentenced Justice to 75 years for the murder charge and 6 years for the armed robbery charge.
