Lake Co. prisoner named in murder-for-hire plot

A man awaiting trial on charges he murdered his wife attempted to use violence to tip the scales of justice his way, Lake County officials said Wednesday.

Clarence Weber Jr., 58, was charged with trying to convince a fellow inmate to murder two witnesses in the case and severely injure a third person.

That inmate went to police instead, Lake County Deputy State's Attorney Jeff Pavletic said, and has been secretly recording his conversations with Weber since the first of this month.

Weber, formerly of Waukegan, is charged with first degree murder in the July 5 stabbing death of his wife, Adelina Weber, in a Lincolnshire parking lot.

Held without bond since his arrest July 8 in Indiana, Weber wanted to kill two people who were prepared to testify against him, Pavletic said, and was willing to pay $10,000 to $200,000 to have it done.

"He said he wanted them taken care of so that they would never be able to testify," Pavletic told Associate Judge Raymond Collins at a bond hearing Wednesday afternoon. "He said he wanted it done in such a manner that their bodies would never be found."

A third person, who police described only as "related" to the case against Weber, was to be beaten so as to "put the fear of God" into him or her, Pavletic said quoting Weber's statements on the tapes.

Weber faces 20 to 60 years in prison if convicted of solicitation of murder for hire, and up to seven years if convicted of solicitation of aggravated battery.

Adelina Weber, 31, was killed as she sat in her car and talked with her husband in the parking lot of the SpringHill Suites, 300 N. Marriott Drive.

The killing was just days after he had been served papers that his wife intended to divorce him, and just two months after a suspicious fire destroyed the couple's Waukegan house shortly after she moved out.

Police said Weber fled the state after he killed his wife, and he was captured three days later near LaPorte, Ind., after a massive police manhunt.

Pavletic said Weber is eligible for the death penalty because his wife had an active order of protection against him at the time of her murder. No decision has been made on what penalty will be sought.

Adelina Weber said in her application for the order of protection that her husband threatened her often and told her "he could just snap" if she ever disagreed with him.

During one month in 1989, Weber twice attempted to kill his then-wife in Florida. He spent seven years in prison as a result.

Pavletic said the investigation is continuing and detectives are attempting to learn if Weber has the kind of money he was offering the other inmate, and how he intended to transfer it to him from the jail.

Pavletic told Collins he may return to court to obtain an order allowing jail officials to monitor Weber's mail and phone calls.

Collins said Weber would remain held without bond and ordered him to appear in court Oct. 28.