Dad Was 'Weed Dealer' Killed By Rival Named 'Momo,' Accused Teen Killer Told Cops

BRIDGEVIEW, IL — As John Granat’s alibi began to unravel the morning after he discovered his parents’ bloodied bodies in their bedroom, prosecutors said he changed his story 14 times, each tale more ridiculous than the last, including claims that his father was a feared marijuana dealer who was killed by rival dealer named "Momo."

On the second day of testimony in the double-murder trial of Granat and his former best friend Chris Wyma, jurors from both juries spent much of Thursday watching video of their respective interrogations by Cook County Sheriff’s Police detectives.

Det. Sgt. Steve Moody said he and his partner, Det. Scott Lefko, were already aware that a Palos Heights police officer had stopped Granat around 5 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2011, near Harlem Avenue and 122nd Street after the 17-year-old claimed to be asleep all night in the basement of his parents’ house in Palos Park.

>>>> Granat 'Groomed' His Friends To Murder His Parents: Prosecutors

The detectives made Granat repeat his story numerous times: how he came home from working out at World Fitness in Hickory Hills and spent time in his bedroom before heading to the basement.

“I sleep in the basement because it’s always hot in my bedroom,” the teen said in the video. “I went to bed and was watching TV until I fell asleep around 12:30 and woke up before 7 a.m."

Once they confronted Granat about his early morning traffic stop by Palos Heights Officer Christopher Hodorowicz, Granat quickly changed his story, claiming he had fallen asleep in his white Chevy Blazer in the driveway of his home. He also blamed everyone from Arabs to Mexican drywallers for the deaths of his parents.

Asked about the bottle of yellowish liquid found in the Blazer’s glove box, Granat said it was chlorine bleach for a fish pond and pool belonging to his friend, who “lives by the mosque in Bridgeview.”

“Who’s your friend?” the detectives asked.

“Chris Wyma," he said.

Granat also suggested that someone may have gotten hold of the code for the remote garage door opener at his father’s work site, where the older Granat owned a company that did home construction and remodeling.

“My dad was always giving out the key to his truck,” the younger Granat said, theorizing that his parents’ killer may have opened the garage door sometime during the night of Sept. 11, 2011, and entered the house through the garage access door.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Moody said.

“I’m not lying,” Granat replied.

After being confronted about the early morning traffic stop when he claimed to be at home sleeping, Granat admitted going to Wyma’s house in Bridgeview, where he and other youths had gathered to smoke weed on the front porch.

Around 5 a.m., Wyma woke Granat up where he had been sleeping on a couch on the front porch. Wyma told him to go home, because Wyma’s father, a Palos Hills police officer, would soon be arriving home after working the night shift.

“I find it hard to believe that Chris’s father, who’s a cop, is going to let you kids smoke weed on the front porch,” Moody tells him.

Granat admitted to selling marijuana to fellow students at Stagg High School. He went to Wyma’s house that Saturday evening because he overheard a dealer named Sam, who still owed him money for an ounce of marijuana, talking about going to his parents’ house to rob and kill them in a smoke shop on Harlem Avenue.

He also mentioned two other drug dealers named Momo and “G.” One of them had an SOS order (“shoot on sight”) by Bridgeview police.

“You left your parents there to be massacred because you loved them so much,” Moody asks. “Do you even comprehend that your parents are dead?”

After the detectives left Granat alone in the interview room at the Maywood Cook County police headquarters “so you can think of your next story,” Granat got up and knocked on the door.

“Do you want to hear the truth?” he asked Lefko when he answered the door.

Granat told the detective that “G,” the marijuana dealer, was actually his father, John W. Granat. His father came to him that evening and told him to “get out of the house” because Momo was coming to rob him.

“He made me do this s---,” the teen said. “He had cash at the house.”

“Your dad didn’t know that the hit was coming? He didn’t care about your mom?” the detective asked incredulously. “Who did you let in? I don’t think you have the guts to do it yourself.”

According to Granat, his father grew marijuana on the sheep farm in Lemont but he couldn’t show the cops where it was because “it had been harvested.”

“My dad and I had the closest relationship ever,” Granat said. “He didn’t want me to die. He wanted me to take [over] the business.”

The detective told Granat that “we’re getting there.”

“You’re 17,” Lefko said. “You have your whole life ahead of you.”

Expressing remorse that his father made him engage in illegal activities by taking care of the marijuana crop, Granat said, “My father liked me, but I was his little bitch.”

Granat also mentioned “E” — his alleged co-accomplice Ehab Qasem — for the first time, suggesting Qasem may have gone over to his house to rob and kill his parents.

After some 90 minutes of interrogation video, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Donna Norton asked Moody if they ever found evidence that the older Granat was a drug dealer.

“No,” the detective said.

Photo: John Granat's booking photo from Sept. 12, 2011. | Cook County Sheriff