Timothy Banowetz, who was convicted of murdering asbestos attorney Randy Gori, is appealing dismissal of his motion to withdraw his guilty plea and vacate a 70-year prison sentence.
On Nov. 8, Madison County Circuit Judge Kyle Napp heard arguments on Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine’s motion to dismiss Banowetz’s request to withdraw his plea and vacate the sentence.
Banowetz, 32, was present at the hearing with his court-appointed attorney, Calvin B. Fuller of Granite City. First Assistant State’s Attorney Chad Loughrey and Assistant State’s Attorney Lauren Maricle were also present at the hearing.
Loughrey and Maricle presented evidence and testimony showing that Banowetz could not have mailed the motion from prison in December 2021, as he had claimed.
After arguments were presented, Napp found that Banowetz’s motion to withdraw his plea and vacate a 70-year prison sentence was not timely filed and lacked jurisdiction.
Banowetz moved for the clerk to file an appeal on his behalf, which Napp granted. She also granted his request for the appointment of an appellate public defender.
After the hearing, Haine said he hoped Napp’s ruling would bring an end to Banowetz’s “absurd legal gamesmanship.”
“We are going to continue [to] make every possible effort to ensure this brutal individual serves every day of his 70-year sentence, so fully deserved, so that the family and loved ones of Randy Gori can continue to heal with a sense of closure,” Haine 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 received his prison sentence on Dec. 10, 2021.
On Dec. 5, 2022, Banowetz asked for his guilty plea to be withdrawn and to be brought back to Madison County to stand trial.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 argued 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.” However, he waited nearly a year to file his motion, claiming his mail was held up in prison.
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.
According to a press release from Haine’s office following the Nov. 8 dismissal hearing, Banowetz was homeless at the time of the murder. However, Banowetz was a student at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, where detectives searched his “study room.”
Haine said evidence suggests Banowetz killed Gori as part of a robbery scheme.
When Banowetz approached police on the night of the murder, he had a note containing instructions, including restraining the family with cable ties and duct tape, having them withdraw $4-6 million from the bank, killing them and burning the home.