(The following appeared on the Chicago Tribune website on January 26, 2010.)
CHICAGO — A man who admitted shooting at two Metra Electric line trains in 2007 after being hired by a train engineer’s ex-boyfriend to kill her was sentenced Tuesday to more than 11 years in prison in a deal with the government.
Telly Savalas Virgin won a reduced sentence by testifying at the trial of the engineer’s ex-boyfriend, Theodore Howard, who was convicted in the bizarre murder-for-hire plot. Howard has yet to be sentenced.
If he had not cooperated, Virgin faced up to almost 22 years in prison on a charge of recklessly interfering with a mass transportation vehicle. He told a jury he aimed low at the trains because he didn’t want to hurt anyone, but the would-be victim was not at the controls anyway.