Murder Conviction Reaffirmed In Glendale Heights Man's Shooting Death

GLENDALE HEIGHTS, IL — An appellate court has affirmed the murder conviction of a man who fatally shot Kyle Gojdas, 29, of Glendale Heights.

Donald Pelka, 65, was convicted of first degree murder in 2022 and sentenced to 50 years in prison, but had appealed the decision, alleging he was deprived of a fair trial due to errors made by the trial court. Pelka challenged the trial's jury instructions, the admissibility of surveillance footage and other evidence.

Police had been called to Bella One Spa in unincorporated Bloomingdale around 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 28, 2018, after someone reported that shots had been fired. Responding officers reported that they found Gojdas, who worked at the spa, unresponsive with gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Related: Bartlett Man Charged With 1st Degree Murder At Spa

Pelka was pulled over by Hanover Park Police about 10 minutes later for speeding and was taken into custody.

According to investigators, Pelka had been a customer at the spa when he got into a verbal fight with Gojdas, drew a gun and shot Gojdas twice.

Pelka's 2022 conviction came after a five-day jury trial.

The conviction was affirmed after the appellate court evaluated each of Pelka's challenges and ruled, "Finding no errors, we thus find no cumulative error" regarding the original trial.

“I thank the Appellate Court for their thorough analysis of this case and their finding that no errors, let alone the cumulative effect of multiple errors, were committed by the Trial Court affecting Mr. Pelka’s trial,” DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement.

He added, “This decision will ensure that Mr. Pelka spends the rest of his life behind bars for the cowardly, unprovoked shooting of an unarmed man while he was at work."