Bartlett man sentenced to 50 years in prison for security guard's murder
A Bartlett man who fatally shot a security guard outside an adult business in 2018 has been sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Donald Pelka, 63, was convicted of first-degree murder in June for the killing of Kyle Gojdas, 29, of Glendale Heights, outside the Bella One Spa on Lake Street near Bloomingdale.
Authorities said Pelka was a customer at the spa when he got into an argument with Gojdas at about 3:30 a.m. Sept. 28, 2018, in the business's parking lot. Authorities say Pelka pulled a gun and shot Gojdas twice in the chest then fled the business.
Soon after, Hanover Park police pulled Pelka over and matched his vehicle to one reported at the scene of the shooting.
"Nearly four years ago, in a senseless act of cowardly violence, Donald Pelka murdered Kyle Gojdas," DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement about the sentence Thursday. "For the past four years, Kyle's surviving family and friends have been forced to adjust to life without Kyle. While there is nothing that can be done to bring Kyle back to those who loved him, it is my sincerest hope that today's sentence will provide some measure of justice to those Kyle left behind,"
Pelka's attorneys argued he acted in self-defense, but jurors found him guilty of first-degree murder in June, after a five-day trial and two hours of deliberations.
Prosecutors alleged in a pretrial filing that an entertainer at the spa said Pelka was "argumentative" that night because another worker had refused to have sex with him, and was upset when Gojdas told him the business did not offer sexual services.