Justice, finally, but time doesn't heal

In less than an hour on a frigid January night, 20-year-old James Degorski and 18-year-old Juan Luna ruthlessly murdered seven innocents inside the Palatine Brown's Chicken and Pasta who were getting ready for a Friday-night close and the promise of a weekend ahead.

In less than an hour, they took those seven souls. They slashed gaping holes into the lives of countless loved ones. They stole the Northwest suburbs' innocence.

For nine years, we waited for a break; for the thought that the killers who walked among us had been caught and locked away. For seven more years, the survivors waited, wondering if they would ever hear someone give voice to that second set of guilties.

Sixteen long years after that rampage, in less than two hours, twelve men and women Tuesday found Degorski guilty, bringing a conviction that took longer to achieve than the youngest victim Michael Castro's lifetime. In less than another two hours, those same men and women ruled Wednesday Degorski is eligible for the death penalty.

It took too long, this justice for Richard and Lynn Ehlenfeldt. For Michael Castro. For Guadalupe Maldonado and Thomas Mennes. For Marcus Nellsen and Rico Solis. It took much too long. Now it is nearly done.

Nearly done too for Palatine. For 16 years, the community, and especially a corps of Palatine police and village officials, endured questions, criticism and the agony of facing those survivors. Certainly there are some things they wish they'd done differently, but it also is true that these trials showed the authorities did not charge some who had falsely confessed.

Perhaps Tuesday's guilty verdict brought some sense of justice­- finally, achingly, achieved.

Robert Mennes, Thomas' older brother, slowly exhaled as the verdict was read. Nellsen's mother, Diane Clayton, wiped away tears. The Ehlenfeldt relatives clasped hands and cried. The relief and sense of some coming closure could be seen on the faces of the Castros, the Solises, the Maldonado sons.

And the pain also was palpable for Jim Degorski's mother, just as it must be for Luna's family.

So much blood poured and tears shed. So much senseless loss.

And now those who hold Richard and Lynn and Michael and Rico and Guadalupe and Marcus and Thomas in their hearts can begin to unburden themselves a bit in the testimony that will be heard to determine whether Degorski gets the death penalty.

None of us truly can imagine what the survivors of that terror are enduring to this day. For them, there is no deliverance; there is little relief. For them, truly, there is no end.

More than four weeks ago, Nellsen's mother Clayton gave voice to what all those survivors have known for far too long now. "No one's going to walk away from this case a winner," she said. "We all lost."