Teen gets 20 years in fatal Villa Park beating

A Chicago teen was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison for his role in the fatal beating of a Villa Park man during a robbery.

Dywayne D. Head, 19, pleaded guilty to felony home invasion for the May 16, 2007, attack. Prosecutors dropped first-degree murder allegations in exchange for the plea, which included Head's promise to testify against three co-defendants.

Head is eligible for parole after serving half the prison term.

Violence erupted soon after the four young Chicago men arrived at 46-year-old James Keniski's home on the 0-100 block of North Addison Road, prosecutor David Imielski said.

Keniski did not know the men, but he let them inside because they had a mutual friend. Head later admitted in a videotaped confession that the group's plan was to rob Keniski.

Another defendant, Semaj Walker, 23, is accused of pushing Keniski over a banister, causing him to fall 10 feet, and then repeatedly kicking him. Also charged are Joshua J. Gordon, 20, and Ray A. Moore, 18.

Imielski said the victim's wife tried to investigate after hearing the commotion but Moore blocked her from leaving a backroom where they were watching television.

Afterward, she found her husband lying in a stairwell.

"Her initial thought was that her husband had been shot," Imielski said.

He said the men made off with the couple's credit cards before fleeing.

Rescuers rushed Keniski to Elmhurst Memorial Hospital and, later, Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. Keniski died nine days later from multiple injuries.

Police arrested Gordon the night of the attack. Head was arrested June 5, 2007, in Chicago. Imielski said forensic experts linked Head to the crime scene through his DNA from a urine sample found in the couple's bathroom.

His attorneys, Steven Dalton and Valerie Pacis, both senior DuPage County public defenders, who brokered the plea deal, requested that state prison officials separate Head from the co-defendants for his safety.

DuPage Circuit Judge Peter J. Dockery presided over Friday's plea deal. The three other defendants are charged with first-degree murder, home invasion, residential burglary and robbery. They have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.

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