Crime & Safety

Drew Peterson Packed Off to Start 38-Year Prison Sentence at Pontiac

Drew Peterson finally got out of jail, but only so he could go to prison.

The Will County Sheriff's Department didn't wait long to send Drew Peterson off to start his "life of hardship and abuse."

Less than 24 hours after Peterson spoke those words in court and was sentenced to 38 years in prison, staff at the Will County jail had the disgraced ex-Bolingbrook cop packed up, out the door and on his way to Stateville Correctional Center.

"Drew Peterson's paperwork for his transfer to Stateville was drawn up within a few hours of his return to (jail) after court yesterday," Deputy Chief Brian Fink of the Will County Adult Detention Facility said in a statement Friday.

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"The Will County Sheriff's Office transported Mr. Peterson to the (Illinois) Department of Corrections facility at 9:22 this morning without incident," Fink said.

But Stateville apparently did not want Peterson around either, as the same day he arrived he was transferred to Pontiac Correctional Center, confirmed Department of Corrections spokeswoman Stacey Solano.

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Peterson was first taken to the Northern Reception and Classification Center on the Stateville grounds. The average stay for an inmate at a reception and classification center is three weeks to two months, according to the Department of Corrections, but Peterson was only around for a few hours.

Peterson was convicted in September of killing his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

Right before Judge Edward Burmila handed down Peterson's prison sentence, the convicted wife-killer screamed his innocence and proceeded to deliver a meandering speech about how he had been framed and deprived of his rights.

"The point I’m trying to make is anything you sentence me to, you're sentencing me to the department of corrections to die," Peterson told Burmila during his statement.

Peterson, 59, will be 93 by the time he hits his scheduled release date. But one of Peterson's attorneys, Steve Greenberg, predicted Peterson and his murder case will be back in Joliet within two years when he wins an appeal.

After Peterson's sentencing, Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said he will review the case of Peterson's missing fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, who mysteriously vanished in October 2007. Glasgow said his office also will be taking another look at the case of missing Plainfield mother Lisa Stebic, who disappeared six months before Stacy.

"We're going to sit down and we're going to vet that case," Glasgow said of the Stacy Peterson investigation conducted by the Illinois State Police. "We're going to look at the weaknesses in that case and see what stands and what doesn't."

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