By Clifford Ward
Tribune
DUPAGE COUNTY — A prison inmate who sought revenge on a DuPage County judge and prosecutor and attempted to have them murdered was sentenced Friday to 40 years in prison.
Gordon Vanderark, 56, formerly of Wheaton, had been found guilty by a jury in May of solicitation of murder. He was given the maximum possible sentence.
Vanderark was serving a 16-year prison sentence for an aggravated DUI conviction in 2010 when he solicited a fellow inmate to kill Judge Blanche Hill Fawell, who had sentenced Vanderark to prison, and Assistant State’s Attorney Audrey Anderson, who prosecuted his case.
The inmate, however, alerted prison officials and later wore a hidden device to record conversations with Vanderark, who gave him $2,000 via his prison bank account and promised $70,000 more upon completion of the murders. The inmate was supposed to carry out the crimes following his parole.
Full story: Inmate gets 40 years for seeking murders of DuPage judge, prosecutor