Prosecutors weighing plea deal in Glendale Heights burning deaths

A Glendale Heights father who offered to admit he killed his two sons after setting them on fire if prosecutors take the death penalty off the table will have to wait a bit longer before getting an answer.

Prosecutors said Thursday they still are considering the plea deal that would spare 34-year-old Kaushik Patel's life in exchange for a life prison term.

Last month, DuPage County Public Defender Robert Miller said Patel is pushing for a plea deal. It's DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett's decision to make. Patel is back in court Oct. 2.

Patel is charged with causing the fatal injuries Nov. 18 after luring his two sons with new toy cars into a bathroom of their home on the 1800 block of Harvest Lane and setting them on fire with gasoline.

The boys' mother was not home when the fire broke out. She has since divorced Patel.

After the fire, Kaushik Patel buckled the children into the back seat of his car and drove them to his older brother's house in Hanover Park. A relative called 911.

The boys struggled for months inside Loyola Medical Center's burn unit in Maywood. The youngest child, Om, 4, was the first to die, on Jan. 17. Vishv, 7, survived several surgeries but took a sudden turn for the worse and died Feb. 19.

Their father survived severe burns. He has remained in DuPage County jail on a $10 million cash bond since his Feb. 15 release from the hospital. He told the Daily Herald in a March 7 interview that it was an accident and he meant only to harm himself in a botched suicide attempt amid family problems.

He and his wife, Nishaben, wed Aug. 12, 1997, in an arranged marriage in their native India, five years after he had come to the United States. The couple divorced July 1 after reaching an agreement in which Kaushik Patel voluntarily relinquished any right to their home, two cars, $25,000 in jewelry and the boys' life-insurance policies.