High School Pals Tied Together in 2011 Parent Murder Case to Finally Stand Trial

BRIDGEVIEW, IL -- A young man charged with brutally murdering his parents five years ago will stand trial along with a high school pal who allegedly helped him.

Attorneys met Monday in Cook County Judge Neil Linehan’s Bridgeview courtroom to go over pretrial motions before jury selection begins on Jan. 9. Prosecutor Donna Norton said both defendants would have separate juries.

John Granat was 17 and a senior at Stagg High School when his parents, John and Maria Granat, were found Sept. 11, 2011, bludgeoned and stabbed in the bedroom of their upscale home in unincorporated Palos Park.
Fellow Stagg senior Christopher Wyma, and two other teens were arrested a month later, in October 2011. Prosecutors said that Granat plotted with Wyma and 19-year-old Ehab Qasem, of Hickory Hills over Skype to beat his parents to death with baseball bats as they slept in their beds. Maria had also been stabbed more than 20 times, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner.

A fourth youth from Chicago Ridge — Mohammad Salahat, then a 16-year-old junior at Oak Lawn Community High School — waited outside in the car while the murders went down in the Granat home. Salahat pleaded guilty in March and was sentenced to 35 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

The morning court call was delayed because the jail buses were late getting to the Bridgeview courthouse due to weather. Many of the Cook County Jail detainees during Linehan’s morning court call entered the courtroom carrying knit stocking caps. The judge expressed his displeasure with the late arriving Cook County assistant public defenders representing Granat and Wyma.

“It’s 20 to 12,” the judge said. “These guys wander in at noon all the time.”

Granat, 22, wearing a yellow jail uniform, and Wyma, also 22, in stripes, also appeared to be getting along better than at past hearings. Wyma would often glare at his former high school friend, prompting one of the prosecutors to state that “these guys can’t even be on the same bus together.”

Linehan set the next status hearing for Jan. 5. Norton told the judge she is still subpoenaing state witnesses, including a DNA expert, the medical examiner, and a police officer. She said many of the officers who worked on the case in 2011 have since retired.

Her cell phone tower expert from the U.S. Secret Service is still a question mark. Norton said her expert is presently guarding the First Family, as the Obamas celebrate the holidays in Hawaii.

“When he comes back on Jan. 5, he has to begin preparing for the presidential inauguration,” Norton said.
Court records also indicate that Qasem is set for a status hearing on Jan. 9. Qasem, 24, is currently being held in protective custody in the Livingston County Jail.

Assistant Public Defender Daniel Nolan intends to argue that since there were no witnesses to Wyma’s participation in the Granats’ killings, the charges should be dropped. Nolan also contends that investigators seized cellphones and other evidence from Wyma’s home in Bridgeview without an arrest warrant.

Granat and Wyma did not appear to have any friends or family members present Monday in the courtroom.