West Chicago man guilty in Bartlett lawyer’s murder

A DuPage County jury Friday convicted a West Chicago man of suffocating his former lawyer during a gun heist at the 82-year-old victim’s home in rural Bartlett.

The jury of three men and three women deliberated less than two hours before finding Terry Bratcher, 45, guilty of murdering Carl Kuhn in August 2009.

Bratcher faces up to natural life in prison because the jury also found he murdered Kuhn in an “exceptionally brutal or heinous” manner.

The verdict brought some peace to Kuhn’s family.

“From day one, I had no doubts he would be found guilty,” Kuhn’s son, Evan Kuhn of Lakemoor, said. “We can’t bring my father back, but I know he’s completely satisfied with the verdict.”

State’s Attorney Robert Berlin, who prosecuted the case along with Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Cronin, called Carl Kuhn a “pillar of the community.” He credited sheriff’s officials for the investigation that led to the convictions of both Bratcher and another man, Keith Allen, 23, of Chicago.

“Carl Kuhn was really an institution in this county, and no one deserves the fate that befell him,” Berlin said.

Prosecutors said Bratcher and Allen devised the scheme to get drug money after meeting at a Cook County drug court class. Bratcher, who was once represented by Kuhn and later befriended him, told Allen he knew a man with a vast collection of expensive firearms.

On Aug. 21, 2009, the robbers entered Kuhn’s home and forced him blindfolded and at gunpoint to an upstairs bedroom, where he was suffocated facedown into a pillow. Allen later admitted he checked Kuhn’s pulse while Bratcher suffocated him.

During the robbery, prosecutors said, the men also forced Kuhn to drink iced tea laced with dish soap. They took more than 40 guns after sawing into one of his safes.

Bratcher and Allen were arrested after Bratcher’s mother found one of the stolen weapons in her car. She summoned police, who located a cache of guns in her garage.

In a video interview, Bratcher straddled a detective and demonstrated how he smothered Kuhn, but he claimed he left the elderly man alive because he couldn’t bring himself to kill.

Allen pleaded guilty in February to murder and is now serving 46 years. Bratcher, who opted for a rare six-person jury trial, will be sentenced at a future court appearance.

Carl Kuhn was an avid gun-rights activist, a former Glen Ellyn police officer, a World War II veteran and, for 50 years, a criminal defense attorney. His son, Evan, said that while he was grateful justice was served, it’s a “no-win situation” for not only his own family but for Bratcher’s.

“It’s at a point now where we can start to have a little closure,” he said. “I do forgive him for what he he’s done, but it’s hard. He made mistakes like all of us, but it went beyond that.”

Evan Kuhn praised police and prosecutors for presenting “such a thorough case.”

Berlin said the jury’s guilty finding brought to 15 the number of murder convictions in DuPage County this year alone. He said nine convictions were entered at trial, and six other defendants pleaded guilty.

“It’s unprecedented,” he said.

Guilty: ‘I do forgive him for what he’s done,’ lawyer’s son says