Hommerson guilty in deaths of Barrington Hills couple

After nearly 12 years, justice caught up with Peter Hommerson on Friday night.

The nine men and three woman on a Lake County jury deliberated about six hours before finding Hommerson guilty of the murders of Marvin and Kay Lichtman in their Barrington Hills mansion on Jan. 23, 1996, and burning the house to the ground.

Hommerson, 62, will face a mandatory term of life in prison when he returns to court Feb. 20 for sentencing.

A contractor at the Lichtman house, Hommerson and his wife left the area after he was questioned by police, failed a lie detector test and had his homes in Algonquin and Woodstock searched for evidence.

He wound up in Mexico with borrowed money and the clothes on his back. He lived there until 2005 when he was arrested and returned to Illinois.

His former wife, Ros Hommerson, turned on him and testified this week that she lied to police about his activities on the day of the killings and helped him get to Mexico.

Prosecutors told the jury her testimony, along with what they called conflicts in Peter Hommerson's story and physical evidence, proved his guilt.

Lake County Deputy State's Attorney Jeff Pavletic said Hommerson was not the only person police questioned about the Lichtman murders, but his reaction to the questioning was unique.

"The police talked to dozens of people. They talked to everyone they thought could give them information about this crime," Pavletic said. "But of all the people in all creation they spoke to, only Peter Hommerson had to move to Mexico."

Defense attorney David Weinstein argued Hommerson was terrified of authority, having been tortured by police in his native Hungary for not being a member of the Communist Party.

He said Ros Hommerson told a different story from the witness stand than her original statement to police because she was seeking revenge on her former husband.

"She has got an ax to grind, and I think that is pretty clear," Weinstein said. "He abandoned her, and I do not think she would give you a straight story."

In her first statement to police, Ros Hommerson said her husband told her he was going to rent a van on the day of the killings and spent most of the afternoon with her.

When she recanted that story about a month after her husband fled to Mexico, she said he had left their home at 8 a.m. and did not see him again until the late evening.

Pavletic told jurors Hommerson had rented the van because the one he owned had a rack on it and would not fit in the Lichtman's garage.

Hommerson pulled the van into the garage, killed the couple and may have filled the van with valuables stolen from the home, although no stolen property was ever found, he said.

Weinstein said it would have been impossible for Hommerson to have committed the crime. A neighbor of the Lichtmans testified it was about 7 p.m. on the day of the murders that he saw one of their garage doors being closed.

A credit card receipt shows Hommerson was buying gasoline at a station about six miles away from the house at that same time, Weinstein said.

Pavletic countered that the fire, which was reported at 7:39 p.m. by an automatic alarm, could have been started before or after the gasoline purchase and the neighbor could be mistaken about the time he saw the door opening.

After the verdicts were read, one of Kay Lichtman's nieces expressed the family's relief.

"We have been waiting for this for a very long time," Manetta Quillian said. "Marvin and Kay were an incredible presence in our lives, and we are just so thankful to all the people who did not give up on this case."