Madison County Circuit Judge Kyle Napp scheduled another status conference for next month in Timothy Banowetz’s bid to withdraw his guilty plea for the murder of Edwardsville asbestos attorney Randy Gori.
During a status conference on July 12, Napp scheduled a follow-up status conference in order to give special defender Calvin B. Fuller of Granite City appropriate time to review Banowetz’s case.
Fuller said during the status conference that he has not yet received all of the requested transcripts nor has he had a chance to meet with Banowetz.
“I don’t think that you have, Mr. Fuller, all the information you need to know what you’re doing with regard to whether, how you’re adopting this motion or if you’re going to be amending his motion and adding other things to it,” Napp said. “So I feel like I would be putting you in a box, making you pick a date.”
“I would like to set this matter for one more status just to give you that time, but then after that I really want to pick a date to set it for hearing,” she continued.
Assistant State’s Attorneys Chad Loughrey and Lauren Maricle were also present at the status conference. The parties plan to meet again on Aug. 30 at 9:30 a.m.
Fuller was appointed special defender after Banowetz asked Napp for counsel on April 13.
“Yeah, I’m going to need someone appointed to me,” he said.
Banowetz is currently an inmate at the Pontiac Correctional Center after pleading guilty on Oct. 5, 2021, to the first degree murder of Randy Gori and two armed robbery charges of minors Grace and Ethan Gori.
He was sentenced on Dec. 10, 2021, to 70 years in prison.
On Dec. 5, 2022, Banowetz asked for his guilty plea to be withdrawn and to be brought back to Madison County to stand trial.
“The plea was not made voluntarily and was made because of both coercion and inadequate representation,” Banowetz wrote in his motion. “I was told by my lawyer that I should take the deal because it was what the Gori family wanted.”
On March 6, Loughrey filed a motion to dismiss Banowetz’s request.
He argues that Banowetz made a “knowing, voluntary waiver of his rights and entered into a negotiated ‘open’ guilty plea.”
Loughrey wrote that Banowetz had 30 days from the date of his sentencing to file a motion to withdraw his plea “and was properly admonished of such in open court by Napp.”
Just before the sentencing hearing began in December 2021, Banowetz chose to proceed pro se and attempted to withdraw his guilty plea at that time.
Napp told him they were not there to withdraw a plea. She said he could file a post-conviction motion to withdraw his plea after the sentencing.
“Mr. Banowetz, we’re going to a sentencing hearing today because I don’t believe that you are going to cooperate with anything,” Napp said. “You’re going to throw up roadblocks every chance you get to stop this, just like you did the trial. So we’re going to proceed to a sentencing hearing today. And I will give you your appeal rights, and you can appeal. But you’re not going to keep throwing up roadblocks. You have rights and I will ensure that they are all followed to a T, but I’m not going to let you play games anymore.”
Gori was murdered at his home in Edwardsville on Jan. 4, 2020. He was found in a basement bedroom with 40 stab wounds to the back and an incised wound to the neck.
Gori’s children were found in the laundry room with their hands bound behind their backs with zip ties.
Banowetz approached officers searching the area after the murder and identified himself. He allegedly told officers that he was looking for his truck after attending a bonfire in the area. He was taken in for questioning, and blood on his shirt allegedly matched Gori’s DNA.