Sentencing Delayed In Murder Of Morton Grove Student

MORTON GROVE, IL — A Jackson County judge Monday agreed to put off sentencing for a man convicted of killing a Morton Grove college student in 2014, the Southern Illinoisan reported. Gaege Bethune, now 24 and a resident of Eldorado, was convicted in June of the the first-degree murder of 19-year-old Pravin Varughese after a nine-day trial. Varughese, a Niles West graduate, was a sophomore at Southern Illinois University when his body was found on Feb. 18, 2014 in a wooded area behind a Buffalo Wild Wings off of Illinois Route 13 in Carbondale.

According to evidence presented at trial, the two men had been in a fight in Bethune's truck as they drove around Carbondale on a freezing night while looking for drugs five days earlier. The two intoxicated students got into an argument after being unable to find any cocaine, prosecutors argued. Jurors decided the fight qualified as felony aggravated battery and led to the injuries that a second autopsy determined contributed to Varughese's death.

Bethune had been due to be sentenced Wednesday, the Southern reported, but the judge agreed to delay the hearing until Sept. 17.

Last week, Bethune dismissed his defense attorney, former Jackson County State’s Attorney Michael Wepsiec, who represented him at trial. According to the Southern, Bethune said he was "not happy" with the way he was represented and believed there was "way more" his lawyer could have done.

Wepsiec was replaced by Steven Greenberg and T. Liam Kelly of Greenberg Trial Lawyers in Chicago. They asked for more time to appeal, writing in a motion that Bethune was "wrongfully convicted" on a felony murder charge despite being acquitted of robbery, according to the Southern.

The motion also lays out several other errors during the trial which Greenberg argued should vacate the conviction. He told the Southern that he did not believe the law punishing those found to commit felonies that result in deaths was intended to lock up people like Bethune.

“I don’t think that under any circumstance a young adult should be convicted of murder for getting in a relatively innocuous fist fight,” Greenberg told the newspaper. “I don’t think that is the purpose of the felony murder statute.”

Related:

• Jury Finds Man Murdered Morton Grove SIU Student
• Murder Trial In Morton Grove Student's 2014 Death Enters Second Week
• Trial Begins Over 2014 Death Of Morton Grove SIU Student
• SIU Student From Morton Grove Beaten, Robbed Before Death: Indictment