Degorski's ex-girlfriend details discussions in '93

The former girlfriend of Jim Degorski, who is accused in the Brown's Chicken & Pasta murders, gave an exclusive interview Thursday on WMAQ Channel 5 about how Degorski and Juan Luna alerted her to the slayings in 1993.

"He (Degorski) told me that he had done something big and to watch the news," she said.

Anne Lockett, who was 17 at the time of the murders in Palatine, said that shortly after the crime, she received a phone call from Degorski in the hospital where she was recovering from her fifth suicide attempt. Later, she went to Degorski's house where she also met Juan Luna.

"Juan described how he cut a woman's throat. I distinctively remember that," she said.

Lockett described Degorski as a troubled teen with a bad temper. She said he was violent and that he hit and spit on her. But she stayed with him for almost two years after the murders because she had low self-esteem and a drug problem, she said. She promised her then-boyfriend and his high school pal she would never implicate them in the Brown's murders.

"He (Degorski) told me that if I ever told anybody he would kill me," she said.

Degorski has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is expected to face trial early next year. If convicted, he also could face the death penalty. Luna was sentenced to life in prison this year for his role in the murders.

Lockett told reporters that she thinks the slayings were not about robbery or money, but murder.