100-200 years for policeman's killer

SILAS FLETCHER, 39-year-old leader of a robbery gang, was sentenced to 100 to 200 years in prison Thursday for the murder of Hillside Policeman Anthony Raymond on Oct. 1, 1972.

In sentencing Fletcher, Circuit Court Judge Richard Fitzgerald observed that the crime -killing a policeman in the line of duty-currently permits the death penalty to be imposed.

But because the crime was committed before the present Illinois death penalty law was enacted, the maximum sentence is a very long prison term.

"THE MOST serious sentence I can impose is too lenient because your fate will be determined by what the pardon and parole board will decide at a later date," the judge said. Fletcher automatically will become eligible for parole after 11 years and 3 months behind bars.

"But the defendant should not be furloughed," Fitzgerald added, referring to an Illinois prison policy of granting brief furloughs from prison to some inmates.

Fletcher was found guilty of the kidnap-murder of Raymond after a jury deliberated on the case for four hours last Nov. 27.

RAYMOND, 25, THE father of two, was last heard from at 10 p.m. Oct. 1, 1972 when he radioed to the Hillside police station that he had stopped a suspicious car at the ramp leading from Mannheim Road and the Eisenhower Express-way.
Because of heavy radio traffic that night, all further radio contact was lost.

Raymond's body was recovered by authorities on Aug. 18, 1973. It was in a shallow grave a few feet from the edge of a farm where Fletcher's sister had lived in October, 1972.

Fletcher's sister, her then-husband, James Ehmann, and several other relatives all testified against Fletcher at the trial, describing how he arrived at the farm early on Oct. 2, 1972. Ehmann testified that Fletcher told him be had killed a man.

Fletcher's accused accomplice, Robert Martinez, is scheduled to be tried soon.

By Charles Mount Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL) Fri, Jan 10, 1975 ·Page 3