Guilty verdict in Hanover Park murder

Ronald O'Rourke told several different versions to several different people about the day his ex-girlfriend died.

A DuPage County jury didn't believe any of them.

The jury of seven women and five men found the 47-year-old Crystal Lake man guilty of first-degree murder for the June 2009 stabbing death of Pamela Howat after less than four hours of deliberation Wednesday. The trial lasted six days.

At various times during police interviews in the days after Howat's death, O'Rourke claimed he hadn't been at Howat's Hanover Park house, or that he found her there when he showed up unannounced for a visit, or that she died accidentally during a fight they had.

On the witness stand Friday, he told another version that had him showing up in the morning to say hello, leaving to buy some crack cocaine from a dealer in the area and returning to find her dead. He said he didn't call police because he was high on crack at the time.

"You give crack addicts a bad name," said Prosecutor Joseph Ruggiero during his closing statements Wednesday. "That's how guilty you are."

Members of Howat's family cheered jurors as the panel left the DuPage courthouse Wednesday evening.

"We're just glad the state did a good job and the jury came back with who we knew was the killer," said Jill Gacic, Howat's younger sister. "I'd like him to get a life sentence now."

Jurors didn't speak after the verdict, but the foreman who asked not to be named said the group was unanimous and that the "evidence pretty much spoke for itself."

Prosecutors showed jurors DNA samples found at the crime scene belonging to O'Rourke and displayed phone records that indicated he was in Howat's neighborhood around the time of her death. They also played hours of his video-recorded interviews with police detectives where he told them he broke into the victim's house, was surprised when she came home and fought with her over a hand-held garden spade she brandished when she discovered him in her house.

O'Rourke told detectives that she stabbed herself during the struggle. Prosecutors told jurors that an examination of Howat's body uncovered nine different stab wounds as well as multiple defensive wounds to her hands.

But O'Rourke testified Wednesday that he lied to police about causing Howat's death because he wanted to leave the police station and go buy more drugs. He acknowledged the rationale "doesn't make sense."

"None of it makes sense," Prosecutor Ann Celine O'Hallaren said. "I'll agree with that. Not once did you tell the police the story you told here."

He told jurors he traveled to Hanover Park that day to buy drugs because the crack was a better quality there than in Crystal Lake. He said he went to his ex-girlfriend's house to try to borrow money for his $150-a-day crack habit. He acknowledged that Howat had lent him more than $5,800 over the years.

"Drugs make you do that kind of stuff," he testified.

Defense attorney Michael Mara told jurors that prosecutors did not have any physical evidence linking his client to Howat's murder. Authorities never recovered O'Rourke's clothes or the murder weapon.

"(Prosecutors) told you she clawed at the person killing her," Mara said. "But you were told Ron's DNA was not found under her fingernails."

O'Hallaren said it was important for her to show jurors that O'Rourke was continuing to lie about what he had done.

"He used lies and excuses to cover up a murder and was devoid of any compassion for someone that was supposedly his friend," she said.

O'Rourke was also convicted of home invasion and residential burglary. He is facing a maximum sentence of life in prison, prosecutors said. He is expected to be sentenced by the end of the year, but a date hasn't been set yet.