32 years for Villa Park man's beating death

A Chicago man was sentenced to 32 years in prison Monday for his role in the 2007 beating death of a Villa Park man whose killers entered his home under the ruse of a drug deal.

Samaj Walker, 25, had faced up to 60 years after a DuPage County jury convicted him in January of the first-degree murder of 46-year-old James Keniski.

Prosecutors said Keniski was home with his wife on May 16, 2007, when Walker and three other men who had a mutual acquaintance with the victim showed up at his North Addison Road residence offering to sell drugs.

One of the men held Keniski's wife captive in a bedroom, while another shoved Keniski over a banister — causing him to fall 10 feet — and then savagely beat him for his wallet and credit cards, prosecutors said.

Keniski, who was repeatedly stomped and kicked in the head and chest, died about a week later. Authorities said he suffered a torn liver, 16 broken ribs and severe head trauma.

Two of Walker's co-defendants, Dywayne Head, 22, and Joshua Gordon, 23, both of Chicago, later pleaded guilty to home invasion and were sentenced to 20 and 15 years in prison, respectively, in exchange for their testimony.

In 2009, a jury convicted a fourth suspect, Ray Moore, 21, of Chicago, who held Keniski's wife captive, of first-degree murder under the law of accountability. He is now serving 50 years.

Walker was sentenced by Judge Daniel Guerin. By law, he must serve the full sentence, with credit for more than three years in the county jail since his arrest.