Man Says He Disliked His Ill Mother But Didn't Kill Her
CHICAGO (STMW) -- Wayne Weinke Jr. admits he called his elderly, cancer stricken mother a "f------ b----" during a heating argument over the family's assets.
The Park Ridge man even said that after Gloria Weinke died, he had a "hard time" going to the cemetery to pay respects to his beloved father because she is buried next to him.
But despite the friction, Wayne Weinke remains adamant that he did not throw his mother over a railing, leading to injuries that contributed to her death seven years ago.
"I would never do that to my mother," Wayne Weinke, 57, repeatedly maintained during three hours on the stand at his murder trial Friday at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse.
"I would never hurt my mother."
Contrary to Gloria Weinke's claims, which were captured in a videotaped deposition recorded from her hospital bed, Wayne Weinke said he never visited the 77-year-old's Arlington Heights duplex the day she took a tumble down her basement stairs.
Wayne Weinke testified that he came home from work and was finishing off his second beer and take-out dinner when he got a call from his sister on that fateful night on July 18, 2006.
"'Mom had an accident and it doesn't look good,'" the married father of two said he was told.
The somber news was delivered to him by Gail Deadwyler, the same "freeloading" sister he accused of helping their mother brainwash the late Weinke patriarch into changing his trust and leaving the $1 million plus Chicago-based property of the family's construction supply company to Deadwyler instead of splitting it between the three siblings as he had originally intended.
But Wayne Weinke said he was on his way to patching things up with the women in his family and even had a heart to heart with his mother four days before.
When he rushed to see her at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and was greeted by police officers, he was surprised but ready to give them information because he was raised to "believe cops were his friends."
The officers eventually wore him down as his 9:30 p.m. "bedtime" drew near, Wayne Weinke said, insinuating he was forced to deliver a confession.
"It seems like everyone was saying I did this and so was I thinking I must have done it and if I did it I would have to go back to the hospital and apologize," he said.
Wayne Weinke said he wasn't proud that he called his mother vulgar names during a family meeting to discuss the amendment in Wayne Weinke Sr.'s will.
But through tears and a halting voice, he told defense attorney Lawrence Lykowski his mother also had some stinging words for him: "You're not my son."
If true, Gloria Weinke had a change of heart after she said she was thrown over a railing and down the stairs "like a sack of potatoes" by the son she called "Bud."
"I love you,'" Gloria Weinke said she told Wayne Weinke as she looked at him from the bottom of the steps.
Wayne Weinke brushed her off and said "you hate me" and left, the older Weinke said in videotaped deposition played in Cook County Judge William Lacy's courtroom last week.
Gloria Weinke said she was alone, stewing in her injuries for 14 hours before officials at The Moorings retirement home found her.
She died nearly three months later, partly because Wayne Weinke went "ballistic" believing he was cheated out of wealth he felt he deserved, prosecutors said.
On Friday, assistant state's attorney James McKay lambasted Wayne Weinke for allegedly telling authorities his mother probably "dreamed" he attacked her.
"Are you calling your mother a liar?" McKay asked a combative Wayne Weinke, who hemmed and hawed during a tense cross-examination.
Eventually the exasperated suburban man sheepishly said, "yes."
But he later clarified, "I'm not ever going to call my mom a liar but it didn't happen that way….Am I angry at my mom? I'd be a fool to say I'm not. I'm very, very hurt."
At one point, Wayne Weinke snapped at McKay.
"I'm probably the most honest person you've ever met," he said.
"Well," McKay responded as a few bemused fellow prosecutors looked.
"You're lying today."
Closing arguments in Wayne Weinke's bench trial are expected Tuesday.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
