Former fugitive gets 35 years for murder

A Cook County judge has sentenced a former Chicago man to 35 years in prison after he spent 15 years as a fugitive wanted for a killing outside a Chicago pool hall.

Police first arrested Giovanni Spiller in November 1996, but prosecutors say he disappeared after posting bond and became the subject of an international manhunt. Federal officers arrested him a second time in February 2012 in California.

On Wednesday he was sentenced to 35 years in prison after a bench trial this past May. He was charged with first-degree murder in the 1996 shooting death of 53-year-old Roberto Castillo on the city’s North Side.

Spiller is believed to have traveled to the Philippines, among other places.