Man Curses At Judge Before Getting 60 Years For Murder
UPDATED 12/15/11 1:48 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A man swore at a judge just before he was sentenced to 60 years in prison Thursday for the murder of a Lakeview restaurant manager.
David Sidener, 53, of Evansville, Ind., was convicted in March of the 2008 murder of Randall Hilderbrand, the manager of Lucca's Restaurant, at 2834 N. Southport Ave., which has since gone out of business.
Defendants are routinely allowed to speak as sentencing hearings wrap up. At his sentencing hearing Thursday, Sidener told Hilderbrand's brother that he wasn't the killer, and called Criminal Court Judge Charles P. Burns "a lying son of a bitch," Sun-Times Media reported.
"I know you came here seeking justice, but you're not going to get that today." Sidener said to Randall Hilderbrand's brother, Robert. "The man who killed your brother is out there with you.
"I don't care what this clown gives me," he continued, turning to the judge. Then he pointed at Burns, mocked his voice and cursed at him.
Burns then sentenced him to the prison term, calling him "cold" and "calculating," "dangerous" and "very manipulative." Sidener could have faced life in prison for the October 2008 fatal robbery.
Sidener has been in custody since October 2008 for beating and robbing Hildebrand after the two left a Lakeview bar and went to Lucca's.
Hilderbrand was viciously beaten and tied up in the basement of the restaurant. Sidener bound him to a pole with electrical cords and tape, and left him there with tape over his nose and mouth to suffocate, Assistant State's Attorney Jim Papa told the judge, asking for a stiff sentence.
With Hilderbrand incapacitated, Sidener then looted the basement, according to the Cook County sheriff's office. Sidener was on parole for attempted murder at the time.
Robert Hilderbrand described the brother 14 years his senior as his caretaker and friend, who kept him out of trouble. Randy could have dodged the draft at age 18 in 1969 because he was gay, but went anyway "because he felt it was his duty.
"I ask you to do what Indiana failed to do," Hilderbrand said to the judge. "Put David Sidener in prison for the maximum allotted time so he can't destroy another family the way he destroyed mine."
Sidener already served a 30-year sentence in an Indiana prison on robbery charges. He was on parole for attempted murder when he killed Hilderbrand.
Since he has been in jail, Sidener has found himself in even more trouble. Back in March, he was charged with two counts of possession of contraband, after sheriff's police found out about a scheme in which he hoped to use his knowledge of the location of the weapons to curry favor with prosecutors and secure a "deal" to have his murder charge dropped.
But Sidener himself was the one who arranged, with folks from his hometown, for the gunpowder and ammunition smuggled in through a projector and DVD player mailed to the jail library program, authorities say.
Sidener said he convinced a jail therapist to receive the devices as "donations." Investigators learned he'd arranged for another electronic device to be shipped to the therapist with pieces for a small "zip gun." That package never arrived.
Those counts of possession of contraband in a penal institution were dropped as part of his sentencing.
The Chicago Sun-Times contributed to this report, via the Sun-Times Media Wire.
