Supervisor guilty of 2009 murder at Burr Ridge office

A former supervisor for a Burr Ridge trucking company pleaded guilty but mentally ill Tuesday to the February 2009 murder of a co-worker found shot to death in a closet at their office.

John Gilbert, 48, pleaded guilty in DuPage County court to the first-degree murder of Jason Dragos, a 38-year-old salesman and father of three from Highland, Ind.

The victim's wife Tracy, who was pregnant with their third child when Dragos was killed, said the plea brought some closure but it was bittersweet.

“It's happy and sad because it puts it all in perspective,” she said. “It takes you back two and a half, three years ago, when life was completely different.”

Prosecutors said Dragos was killed by a single gunshot to the head after Gilbert called him in to their office at SAIA Trucking Co. on Feb. 8, 2009, a Sunday. A co-worker found Dragos' body slumped in a closet there the next day.

“The evidence would indicate he was lured into this closet without struggle,” Assistant State's Attorney Joe Ruggiero said.

Dragos, who reported to Gilbert at work, told his wife the morning of his murder he was needed at the office to help Gilbert with a presentation they planned to give in Chicago. When he didn't return, she reported him missing.

After the killing, prosecutors said, Gilbert drove for several hours, stopping at two tollway plazas to buy candy, aspirin and Lysol. He later checked himself into a hospital complaining of chest pains.

Prosecutors said Gilbert also that day circulated an email through the company in which Dragos purportedly resigned, claiming company executives forced him to “secretly follow” Gilbert and report back on his whereabouts.

The email, investigators later determined, had been generated and modified on Gilbert's laptop in the weeks and hours leading up to the murder.

Investigators also uncovered evidence that Gilbert searched online for instructions about “how to kill with no trace,” “how to kill in seconds,” “how to buy rattlesnake venom,” and “making a (firearm) suppressor.”

Authorities never located the murder weapon, a .40 caliber gun, but said Gilbert owned one as a part-time police officer in south suburban Phoenix in 2001. Gilbert had also held part-time police positions in two other jurisdictions, according to court records, and prosecutors theorized previously that he utilized some of his training in the murder.

“He appeared to be in over his head at work,” Ruggiero said of Gilbert's apparent motive. “These stresses at work were catching up with the defendant. He felt he was being targeted.”

Gilbert had been scheduled for trial next week. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors will seek no more than 60 years in prison for the Chicago man, who otherwise could have faced an extended term if convicted of personally discharging the firearm that killed Dragos.

“While his admission will not bring Jason back to those who loved him,” State's Attorney Robert Berlin said, “perhaps it will allow them to move forward with their lives and their memories of Jason knowing the man who killed Jason will be held responsible for his death.”

Tracy Dragos, an elementary schoolteacher, said her children — ages 2, 8 and 11 — still ask about their father, but she is only able to share stories and photos. She said she also feels for Gilbert's children.

“My kids had a father who died a hero,” she said. “Here they get to know their father was a murderer.”

Sentencing is scheduled for December. Dragos said she hopes Gilbert gets at least 38 years because that's how old her husband was when he died.

“He'll never make it out (of prison) alive,” she said. “And one day he'll have to answer to a higher power.”