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Drew Peterson defense expected to begin calling witnesses

Peterson is accused of trying to hire someone while in prison to kill former Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow

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Former Bolingbrook, Ill., police officer Drew Peterson.

Illinois Department of Corrections via AP, File

Associated Press

CHESTER, Ill. — Lawyers for former suburban Chicago police officer Drew Peterson are expected to start calling witnesses at his trial on murder-for-hire charges.

Peterson is accused of trying to hire someone while in prison to kill former Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, who helped convict Peterson in 2012 of killing Peterson’s third wife, Kathleen Savio, eight years earlier. The state Supreme Court is reviewing the conviction.

Peterson is serving a 38-year sentence, but could get another 60 years if he’s convicted in the murder-for-hire case.

Among the evidence prosecutors presented were secret recordings of Peterson talking with a prisoninformant.

Savio’s death was initially deemed accidental. Glasgow reopened the case after the 2007 disappearance of Stacy Peterson, Peterson’s 23-year-old fourth wife. Peterson was never charged in her disappearance but told the informant he worried that Glasgow would eventually do so