Des Plaines man sentenced in murder-for-hire plot
A 51-year-old Des Plaines man was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison after pleading guilty in July to attempting to hire a hitman to kill his estranged wife and her friends.
Zenon Grzegorczyk was arrested in 2012 following months of investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and has been in custody ever since.
Grzegorczyk met with undercover officers on three occasions to set up the murders and was willing to pay up to $5,000 for each person killed. He paid a $3,000 deposit and at the final meeting he showed the undercover officers a briefcase filled with $45,000 in cash, photos of the intended victims, a handgun and two magazines of ammunition, authorities said.
Grzegorczyk told the undercover officers where his wife was living and also suggested burning her and her friends alive, according to court records.
"Other than actually committing the murders, it doesn't get much more serious than this," Judge Elaine Bucklo said at Grzegorczyk's sentencing.
Grzegorczyk told the undercover officers he intended to flee to Poland once the murders were carried out,
Grzegorczyk will have to serve at least 85 percent of the sentence.