Man who murdered Sterling DCFS worker seeking clemency, victim’s family says

DIXON – Sept. 29, 2038, is still a very long ways away.

Nonetheless, the Rock Falls man imprisoned for beating a DCFS worker so severely that she eventually died of her injuries apparently is seeking clemency after serving a little over 1/10th of his sentence, 21 years without parole.

Andrew “A.J.” Sucher, 28, was sentenced July 10, 2019, for the first-degree murder of 59-year-old child welfare investigator Pamela Knight of Dixon, whom he attacked as she arrived at his parents’ Milledgeville home on Sept. 29, 2017, to take his then-2-year-old son into custody.

The 6-foot-4 weightlifter pushed her onto the ground as she was getting out of her car, cracking her head on the concrete driveway, then stomped on her.

Knight, who worked out of the Sterling Department of Children and Family Services office, never recovered. She died 132 days later, never regaining the ability to walk or to talk. The cause of death, the medical examiner said, was blunt force trauma to the head from the attack.

The Knight family got a heads up that Sucher was seeking clemency in a call from the Carroll County state’s attorney’s office, but was not given the basis for his request, said Don Knight, Pam’s husband.

It is not known if Sucher is seeking a reduced sentence, or a full pardon.

Jason Sweat, a spokesman for the State Prisoner Review Board who was contacted Wednesday, said Friday that he needed more time to look into the matter. Carroll County State’s Attorney Aaron Kaney, who was not the state’s attorney when Sucher was prosecuted, declined to comment or provide further information.

The Knights, angered by the plea agreement and what they considered the brevity of his sentence in the first place, aren’t waiting for further details.

Don and Pam’s daughter, Jennifer Hollenback, with the help of her friend Kimberly Tipsord, are asking people to sign a petition on Tipsord’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ktipsord) that will be sent to Gov. JB Pritzker, asking him to deny any request for clemency made by Sucher or his family.

“He’s a real deadbeat loser,” Don Knight said. “I don’t want anyone ever to forget that.”