Judge: Island Lake woman's killer guilty but mentally ill
A McHenry County judge has rejected arguments that a man accused of murdering an Island Lake woman and then crashing into a house in Mundelein was insane at the time.
Howard E. Dibbern, 52, of McHenry, was found guilty but mentally ill by Judge Sharon Prather on charges of first-degree murder, motor vehicle theft and concealment of a homicide and other offenses, prosecutors said Friday.
The verdict means Dibbern will go to prison but will receive greater access to psychiatric treatment while incarcerated.
Dibbern's attorneys argued he was insane when he beat and stabbed Karen Scavelli, 48, in her home on June 2, 2014, and later drove off in her Pontiac Grand Am, stole a purse from a woman at a Mundelein bar and then crashed into a home on Diamond Lake Road in an attempt to kill himself after an officer tried to pull him over.
Scavelli, 48, had three grown children and was a cancer survivor.
Police at the time said that when Dibbern was found, he had a hammer and a knife in the car. Dibbern hit himself in the head with the hammer and cut himself with the knife before being arrested, police have said.
Only two months before he killed Scavelli, Dibbern was released from prison after serving half of a six-year sentence for possession of a firearm by a felon out of Cook County, records show.
Dibbern has been held at the McHenry County jail on $2 million bail since his arrest.
He faces 28 to 95 years in prison - with no chance for early release - when sentenced on Nov. 23.
Dibbern's other criminal offenses stretch back to 1997 and include felony aggravated domestic battery, residential burglary, forgery and theft, records show.