Arlington Heights mother wins suit over son's prison killing

A federal judge has awarded $13 million to the family of an Arlington Heights prison inmate slain five years ago by his cellmate after prison guards allegedly ignored warnings that the killer was planning an attack because he didn't want to share the cell.

Sherree Daczewitz of Arlington Heights in 2006 sued two-time convicted killer Corey Fox and prison officials over her son Joshua Daczewitz's February 2004 murder at the Menard Correctional Center, a maximum-security facility in southern Illinois.

Daczewitz's attorney, Howard Zavell said U.S. Magistrate Judge Byron Cudmore on Oct. 22 ordered Fox to pay Daczewitz $8 million and her son's estate $5 million. Fox didn't put up much of a defense. Last February, after Cudmore ordered the inmate to be brought to Springfield for a deposition, Fox refused to testify or even take the oath.

It was unclear Monday how much money, if any, Fox, who is serving life sentences, could pay. Zavell would not comment on that, and Daczewitz, who co-owns Spunky Dunkers Donuts in Palatine, couldn't be reached for comment.

The state has reached its own settlement with the family, but spokesmen for the Department of Corrections and the Illinois Attorney General's office refused to release details.

The lawsuit said the corrections department and prison officials should have known the risk Fox posed to Daczewitz. Fox, who was serving a life sentence for the Madison County stabbing death of a former co-worker, told various prison officials he would harm anyone placed with him in his cell, according to the lawsuit.

"The defendants were deliberately indifferent to the plight of Daczewitz, and they failed to respond to threats communicated to them by Fox and/or Daczewitz," the lawsuit read.

On Feb. 28, 2004, Fox strangled Daczewitz with a braided bedsheet, then flushed the sheet down the toilet. His death came just two weeks before he was scheduled to be released from prison.

A family member said at the time that a flunked drug test led to Daczewitz sharing a cell with the convicted killer. He was serving time at the minimum-security Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet, but was transferred after the failed test.

Daczewitz had run-ins with police in Des Plaines, Arlington Heights and Palatine. Palatine was where he was charged in 2003 with burning down a home after stealing marijuana. He was serving a seven-year sentence for those crimes.

Fox pleaded guilty to murdering Daczewitz and received another life term. He's now housed at the Tamms Correctional Center in southern Illinois.

• Daily Herald news services contributed to this report.