Kane Co. assistant state's attorney honored for his work on 'cold cases'

A Kane County prosecutor who oversaw the indictments in 22 cold case homicides has been named the county's top assistant state's attorney.

Nemura Pencyla was also the first prosecutor in Kane County to convict a defendant on drug-induced homicide charges, efforts that helped to win him the Prosecutor of the Year award in 2007.

Pencyla, 38, is known as a prosecutor who sees cases in terms of how to win them, not how difficult they are to prosecute. In the courtrooms of the county judicial center, colleagues and defense lawyers just call him "Mu."

Pencyla was asked to head up a slew of unsolved homicide probes, dubbed Operation First Degree Burn. The sting resulted in indictments of 30 people, some for slayings more than a decade old.

"Mu's performance during the cold case process was outstanding," State's Attorney John Barsanti said in a statement. "Mu's supervision of the grand jury process led to a result that has made and will continue to make Kane County a better place to live."

He also netted 12- and 10-year sentences -- a first in the county -- for two men accused of drug-induced homicide offenses.

Pencyla, a Downers Grove native, was hired in 2001 by the Kane County state's attorney's office after a stint as a DuPage County prosecutor. He received his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

Also lauded for their work last year in the state's attorney's office were Sam Partida and Valerie Warnke.

Partida, an Aurora native, is a prosecutor in the Child Advocacy Center and won the Ace Litigator award for excellence in the courtroom.

Warnke was named the office's Employee of the Year for her work as an administrative assistant in the misdemeanor and traffic court.