Suspected Serial Killer Pleads Guilty In Illinois Woman's Death
Jill Suhr, Associated Press Reporting
MARION -- Timothy Krajcir was intent on saving his own skin when he confessed last month to a multistate killing spree decades ago, effectively bartering the admissions for guarantees that he would never see an execution chamber, prosecutors say.
But the same man who for years gave homicide investigators in several states fits remained a mystery Friday, when he abruptly admitted in court that he strangled, stabbed and slashed 51-year-old housewife Virginia Lee Witte in this southern Illinois community three decades ago.
Krajcir promptly got a 40-year prison sentence tacked on to an identical one he received last month in neighboring Jackson County in the 1982 slaying of Deborah Sheppard, a Southern Illinois University student from the Chicago area.
Krajcir offered no explanation in court why he killed, much less why he was admitting it.
Even his public defender seemed perplexed.
While visiting Krajcir this week in an Illinois supermax prison, in preparation for what was to have been merely an evidentiary hearing, Larry Broeking asked the inmate if he wanted to resolve the charges in the Witte case. Krajcir quickly said yes.
"Beyond that, he didn't say any more," Broeking told The Associated Press after Krajcir's sentencing Friday.
Maybe 63-year-old Krajcir's conscience got the better of him. Or perhaps the bald, frail-looking man who has spent most of his adult life behind bars for sex crimes simply knows he'll probably die in prison and is content knowing he won't be executed, making any new punishment irrelevant.
Or maybe he's looking out for his victims' families, sparing them the agony of trials and possibly years of legal challenges.
Only Krajcir apparently knows.
But whatever the rationale, the Williamson County prosecutor for Witte's death suspects Krajcir is a predator who forever will be where he belongs.
"He's obviously a very dangerous man who should never be out of prison," Charles Garnati told reporters after Friday's roughly 15-minute hearing. "That was my most important goal, and we achieved that today."
Krajcir's legal troubles are far from over.
He'll next be prosecuted in neighboring Missouri on Cape Girardeau County murder counts in the slayings of five women in 1978 and 1982.
In Paducah, Ky., he's accused of kidnapping and burglary in the case of 29-year-old Joyce Tharp, who authorities say was abducted from her home in 1979 and killed in southern Illinois before her body was brought back to Paducah.
A Kentucky prosecutor says he won't charge Krajcir in that killing because it appeared to have taken place in Illinois.
Last week, prosecutors in Reading, Pa. -- Krajcir's home state -- charged him with the 1979 rape and slaying of another 51-year-old woman.
Authorities say DNA evidence implicates Krajcir in many of the killings to which he has now confessed.
Krajcir attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale around the time of the killings. Cape Girardeau is about 35 miles from Carbondale. Paducah is 55 miles away. Marion is just 16 miles away.
In court here, Garnati said evidence corroborates much of what Krajcir told two investigators last month on videotape about how he targeted Witte after seeing her while both were driving, then followed her home and forced his way inside before sexually attacking her.
Krajcir said he choked her for four to five minutes but, unconvinced she was dead, stabbed her two or three times, then slashed her torso.
Krajcir was shackled and dressed in a green prison outfit Friday, looking ashen and answering meekly but politely when the judge asked him if he understood the plea deal and its consequences.
Palmer, the judge, called the plea deal "fair and reasonable," crediting the charges' swift resolution with "sparing the victim's family the agony of a lengthy trial" and years of possible appeals.
"For all practical purposes, this is a life sentence," Palmer told Krajcir.
Garnati called the outcome fitting.
"I'm very satisfied that after all these years, we're finally able to bring justice to Mrs. Witte," he said. "It is justice she has deserved all these years."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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