Update: 2-Time Loser Drew Peterson Guilty Again

CHESTER, IL — Less than four years after he was found guilty of killing one of his wives, disgraced former cop Drew Peterson was convicted of plotting the murder of the prosecutor who put him away in the first place.

A jury in Downstate Chester needed only an hour to find Peterson guilty of planning the death of Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow from behind the walls of Menard Correctional Center. Menard is in the Randolph County town of Chester.

Peterson, 62, sat motionless with his chin in his left hand when the verdict was handed down.

Peterson’s sentencing was scheduled for July 26. His talk of having Glasgow killed could land him in prison for as long as 60 years — 22 more than he got for actually killing Savio.

Randolph County State’s Attorney Jeremy Walker said he will shoot for the full 60 — or close to it.,

“I would anticipate asking for at or near the max,” he said.

Glasgow, who testified during the trial, was back in Chester Tuesday afternoon.

“The prosecutor has a right to go home and sleep soundly and not have to worry about getting a bullet in his head after he’s done his job,” Glasgow said.

Prosecutors relied on a wire-wearing snitch to build their case by recording Peterson’s jailhouse conversations. The snitch, 25-year-old Antonio “Beast” Smith — a fat, slope-shouldered, bespectacled convict who gained Peterson’s trust by protecting him from predatory inmates — failed to record Peterson explicitly ordering Glasgow’s murder. He did capture him discussing his hopes to someday smuggle drugs from Mexico for a cartel, that one time he got it on with three Russian hookers in a Florida swimming pool, and the movies he likes to watch.

Walker expected the jury to come to a consensus without taking too much time.

“I anticipated a quick verdict,” he said. “I figured they were either with us or they weren’t.”

No one from Savio’s family attended the trial. Cassandra Cales, the sister of Peterson’s missing fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, was in the gallery Tuesday. After the guilty verdict was announced, Peterson turned to Cales and mouthed something to her silently.

The Illinois State police named Peterson a “suspect” in Stacy’s “potential homicide” shortly after she vanished in October 2007. No one has been charged in connection with her disappearance.

On Tuesday, Glasgow said charges in the Stacy case were still not imminent.