Island Lake woman's killer to serve 56 years in prison
A McHenry man who was found guilty of but mentally ill on charges of first-degree murder, motor vehicle theft and concealment of a homicide and other offenses will serve 56 years in prison, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Howard E. Dibbern, 52, beat and stabbed Karen Scavelli, 48, in her Island Lake home on June 2, 2014, and later drove off in her Pontiac Grand Am, stole a purse from a woman at a Mundelein bar and then crashed into a home on Diamond Lake Road in an attempt to kill himself after an officer tried to pull him over.
The verdict of guilty but mentally ill means Dibbern will receive greater access to psychiatric treatment while incarcerated. Dibbern has been held at the McHenry County jail on $2 million bail since his arrest.
Only two months before he killed Scavelli, Dibbern was released from prison after serving half of a six-year sentence out of Cook County for possession of a firearm by a felon, records show. Scavelli had three grown children and was a cancer survivor.
Police said that when Dibbern was found, he had a hammer and a knife in the car. Dibbern hit himself in the head with the hammer and cut himself with the knife before being arrested.
Dibbern's other criminal offenses stretch back to 1997 and include felony aggravated domestic battery, residential burglary, forgery and theft, records show.