Juan Luna | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

It was not until 2002 that the authorities announced they had arrested two men in the infamous Brown’s Chicken Massacre, so called because the victims were shot or stabbed and left inside two walk-in refrigerators at Brown’s Chicken and Pasta restaurant in the quiet, middle-class village of Palatine.

On Friday, more than 14 years after the killings, opening statements are expected at the trial of one of the accused, Juan A. Luna Jr., in Cook County Criminal Court here.

Those 14 years have tested the patience of the victims’ families, of investigators and of Palatine’s residents.

“Everybody feels like they want it to be over,” said Mayor Rita Mullins, who was finishing her first term when the slayings occurred. “They probably will never find the answer to ‘why’ — why did this happen, why did it happen in Palatine — but the answer will be as to ‘who.’”

During all the years the case was unsolved, Ms. Mullins said, “people did look from side to side, wondering who could have done this. It was the fear of the unknown.”

Mr. Luna was 18 on Jan. 8, 1993, when, prosecutors say, he and 20-year-old James Degorski walked into Brown’s around 9 p.m., intending to rob it after it closed. The two shared a chicken dinner, then slipped on latex gloves and herded the couple who owned Brown’s and five employees to the rear of the restaurant, then into the two refrigeration units, the authorities say. Less than $2,000 was taken, they say.

Relatives notified the police when employees failed to arrive home on time. Five victims were found in one walk-in cooler at the restaurant; two were in another. Some had been shot several times; the throat of one was slit.

Mr. Luna, who had worked at the restaurant until a few months before the slayings, was one of 300 current and former employees interviewed and cleared not long after the killings.

But in 2002, a former girlfriend of Mr. Degorski came forward with details of the crime that investigators have said only someone linked directly to it could have known. The woman told investigators she waited nine years because Mr. Degorski had threatened to kill her if she revealed what he told her about that night.

Mr. Degorski and Mr. Luna were arrested in May 2002. Both pleaded not guilty; if convicted, however, they could face the death penalty. Both have been held without bail in Cook County Jail. Mr. Degorski will be tried after Mr. Luna.

Among the evidence prosecutors are expected to present at Mr. Luna’s trial is a videotaped confession he gave shortly after his arrest, a confession that he has since claimed was coerced. They are also likely to present DNA tests that they say link the remains of the suspects’ partly eaten chicken dinner, retrieved from a trash can, to saliva samples gotten from the men a few weeks before their arrests.

Defense lawyers have indicated they may try to discredit the DNA analysis by arguing that the test results were not conclusive and that the chicken dinner was mishandled.

Judge Vincent M. Gaughan has barred lawyers from speaking to the news media outside the courtroom. Neither Mr. Luna’s lead lawyer, Clarence L. Burch, nor the Cook County state’s attorney, Richard A. Devine, who is prosecuting the case himself, would grant an interview for this article.

A confession and forensic evidence often help prosecutors in cases in which the crime occurred many years earlier, said Leonard L. Cavise, a professor of criminal law at DePaul University College of Law, so Mr. Luna’s statement and the DNA test results could present major hurdles for his legal team.

The Brown’s Chicken franchise never reopened, and the building was torn down in 2001. There was talk for a time of erecting a memorial to the victims, but the idea faded, and now the corner is a parking lot for a Eurofresh Market.

Some victims’ families have said they are grateful that the case is nearing completion, however painful it is to recall the details after so many years. Many have requested privacy as the trial begins, declining to speak to reporters.

Jennifer Shilling, a daughter of the restaurant’s owners, Richard and Lynn Ehlenfeldt, said she and her two sisters planned to attend the trial.

“My sisters and I, as well as the families of our mother and father, have patiently waited for this trial and justice for more than 14 years,” Ms. Shilling, a Wisconsin state representative from La Crosse, said in a statement. “All of us expect that it will be an emotional and painful experience as we again relive the grief and anguish all of us have experienced.”