Joliet's Body Shop Murderer Sentenced By Judge Carlson

JOLIET, IL - Multiple murderer Billy Krasawski's days of living inside the Will County Jail are done. Late Thursday morning, Will County Circuit Judge David Carlson sentenced the now 43-year-old Bourbonnais man to live out the rest of his life at a yet-to-be determined Illinois Department of Corrections prison facility. Krasawski used a pipe wrench and a hammer to kill his victims on March 8, 2016 inside a family-owned body shop on Joliet's east side.

In May, after barely two hours of deliberations, a Will County jury found Krasawski guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the brutal blunt-force trauma killings of Mike Oram, 48, and Oram's girlfriend, Jamie Wills, at the body shop on Cass Street.

Several members of Mike Oram's family attended Thursday's sentencing on the fourth floor of the Will County Courthouse. Oram's father, Doug, walked up to the courtroom podium and read a short victim impact statement, thanking Judge Carlson for all he had done.

"Thank you. You took care of me on the second worst day of my life," the body shop owner told Judge Carlson. "I appreciate it."

Thursday's sentencing was basically a formality. The state's sentencing guidelines for committing multiple murders at the same time call for a life prison term with no chance for parole.

In other words, Krasawski will die in the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections. On Thursday, the killer requested that Judge Carlson sentence him to serve out his sentence at the Stateville Correctional Center, but Carlson rejected the idea.

Carlson, however, told the courtroom how he does not have authority to determine where convicted killers should serve out their terms. "I cannot do that," Carlson told Krasawski.

"Where they take you, where they place you is within their purview. My sentence is my sentence. (Placement) is all up to them."

Krasawski was given credit for serving 1,004 days inside the Will County Jail. A couple days after the body shop killings were discovered, Joliet Police Department detectives tracked him down to a cheap motel in Chicago Heights where Krasawski was undergoing a crack cocaine binge.

Thursday's sentencing was handled by the three prosecutors responsible for May's guilty verdict at trial: Mike Fitzgerald, Dan Egan and Jeff Tuminello.

They convinced the jury that Krasawski, a crack-cocaine junkie, was the killer of Oram and his girlfriend during the late night hours of March 8, 2016. Krasawski clubbed his two murder victims over their heads with a pipe wrench and a steel hammer inside Specialty Fleet Painting, the family business on Cass Street started by Oram's father.

He was at the shop late into the night of March 8, 2016 to smoke crack-cocaine with Oram and Wills, according to testimony. Blood spatter of Wills was recovered from Krasawski's shoes, shirt, hat and jeans, the evidence showed.

During his interview with Joliet Police, Krasawski claimed he saw a "mysterious black guy" who he didn't know open the body shop garage door, take a hit off Krasawski's crack pipe, then freak out, bend down and grab a wrench and start attacking Oram and then Wills.

Fitzgerald convinced the jury that Krasawski's story was preposterous.

"I can't think of a more terrible day for everybody, quite frankly," Judge Carlson told the courtroom at Thursday. The judge also pointed out how he realized the sentencing was taking place just a couple weeks before the holidays.

During his chance to address the court, Krasawski, a seven-time convicted felon, told Judge Carlson, "I just maintain my innocence."

Judge Carlson's parting comments to the double murderer were straight-forward.

"I'm going to sentence you to life in prison. There is no parole."

Mugshots of Billy Krasawski via Will County Sheriff