Deal may spare Glendale Heights man accused of burning two sons

DuPage County prosecutors are reconsidering plans to seek the death penalty for a Glendale Heights man accused of killing his sons by setting them ablaze.

Prosecutors told Judge Kathryn Creswell they have received new information from Kaushik Patel's defense team that could allow the man to plead guilty and receive a life sentence.

They did not provide details about what that new information might contain. Prosecutors previously had rejected a similar proposal.

DuPage State's Attorney Joseph Birkett declined to comment, but he hasn't formally taken the death penalty possibility off the table.

Death penalty cases require a defense attorney certified in "capital litigation." Patel's case was being handled by DuPage Public Defender Robert Miller, who has since ascended to a judgeship and was his office's only attorney certified to lead a death-penalty case.

That forced Judge Kathryn Creswell to appoint Patel a new lead attorney. She chose former DuPage prosecutor Jeff Kendall on Wednesday.

Kendall said he has served on numerous death penalty cases as a prosecutor and has been a qualified lead attorney since 2002. Kendall said it's possible his addition to Patel's defense team will slow things down as he studies the case.

Patel is expected back in front of the judge on Dec. 22 for a status update.

Patel is accused of luring his two sons into a bathtub with toys, dousing them with gasoline and setting them on fire in November 2007. However, in a jailhouse interview with the Daily Herald, Patel claimed he only meant to hurt himself and the boys burst into the bathroom and were injured.

Creswell has decided to allow deathbed testimony from the oldest boy - told to his mother - that the fire was not an accident.

The boys clung to life at Loyola Medical Center in Maywood after the fire, but 4-year-old Om succumbed to his injuries in January 2008 and 7-year-old Vishv lost his fight a month later.