Streamwood man gets 18-year sentence in plot to kill ex-wife, mother-in-law

A 35-year-old Streamwood man was sentenced to more than 18 years in prison last week in connection with a three-state murder-for-hire plot targeting his former wife, her mother and her grandmother, authorities said.

John Gierek pleaded guilty in October to two counts of using an interstate commerce facility in the commission of a murder-for-hire, according to federal prosecutors in Indiana.

The charges alleged that between October 2023 and March 2024, Gierek solicited an acquaintance from Indiana to murder multiple individuals in exchange for drugs and the partial forgiveness of a drug debt.

Gierek also asked the acquaintance — whom he knew through their mutual interest in buying and selling snakes — to kidnap his ex-wife’s neighbor and murder her husband, according to an affidavit filed by an FBI agent in South Bend, Indiana.

He gave the acquaintance tape, pepper spray and a Taser to help carry out the crimes, which would be carried out in Illinois, Wisconsin and Illinois, according to court documents.

According to the agent’s affidavit, the acquaintance cooperated with investigators and recorded multiple phone conversations with Gierek discussing the planned killings in March 2024.

Gierek was arrested March 20, 2024, and has been held in custody since, court records show. He was sentenced Feb. 14 to 220 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release.

This case was investigated by the FBI with assistance from the Allen County (Indiana) Police Department, the Fort Wayne Police Department, the Indiana State Police and the Streamwood Police Department, authorities said.