Old fears led to flight, defense says

Peter Hommerson saw police closing in on him in January 1996.

He had seen it years earlier, and it forced him to flee his native Hungary, his attorney said Tuesday.

Hommerson, 62, is on trial in Lake County circuit court in the murders of a Barrington Hills couple who were shot to death before their $1.5 million mansion was set ablaze.

Within days of being questioned by police, the man who was working for Marvin and Kay Lichtman at their house was crossing the border into Mexico and leaving behind a life built over nearly 20 years.

It was the only thing Hommerson could do, attorney David Weinstein said in his opening statement for the trial.

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"The police had accused him of the murders. They lied to him and they threatened him with the death penalty," Weinstein said. "He feared he was being framed and did not want to die for something he did not do."

Hommerson was taught not to trust the police in Hungary, where he was arrested and tortured for refusing to join the Communist Party.

"They knocked out all of his teeth and he spent two weeks in the hospital," Weinstein said. "Shortly after he got out of the hospital, he left behind his family and friends and left the country with only the shirt on his back."

Hommerson eventually entered this country in 1979 and built what Weinstein described as a successful business as a contractor, while his wife prospered as a designer of expensive shoes.

He had been hired by the Lichtmans to do $50,000 worth of work over the years at the couple's homes in Winnetka, Barrington and Barrington Hills.

Hommerson was working on a glass etching of the couple and their dog, Duke, when they were killed Jan. 23, 1996, and their house burned down.

Prosecutors told jurors Hommerson had other reasons to cross the border.

Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Michael Mermel said in his opening statement that an expert will testify bullets taken from the bodies and shell casings found in the ash all appear to have been fired from a .22-caliber Ruger pistol.

Police found a .22-caliber shell casing and a magazine and sales receipt for a .22-caliber Ruger pistol in Hommerson's Algonquin home the day after Hommerson told them he had never owned such a gun, Mermel said.

Robert Randall, a former sheriff's detective, testified he interviewed Hommerson on Jan. 25 and Hommerson said he had rented a van Jan. 23 because his van had engine problems.

Randall said Hommerson described making two trips to the Lichtman house that day, as well as trips to a pair of grocery stores and one hardware store, and two trips from Algonquin to his other home in Woodstock.

Mermel told the jury that to make the trips Hommerson described in the rental vehicle, a person would have to travel more than 70 miles. The van's odometer showed it had been driven 29 miles while in Hommerson's possession, Mermel said.

Palatine Fire Department Battalion Chief Michael Freese, a certified arson investigator, testified the fire was deliberately set.

Freese, a Barrington Fire Department captain at the time, told jurors the black smoke coming from the house was a signal that gasoline was used as an accelerant.

He also said he and another firefighter had extinguished some flames in the basement when they discovered another fire burning on the first floor.

"The second fire was on a completely different level and 50 to 60 feet from the original fire," he said. "It was an indication of multiple points of origin, because fire doesn't jump around in a house the way it will in the wilderness."

Testimony is expected to continue today.