Daughter of Man in Wife Hammer-Death Case Shouts, 'Take the Deal, Dad!'

A Romeoville man charged with bashing his wife’s head with a hammer and then hiding her body in their home for 10 days shot down a plea deal—to his daughter’s chagrin—then tried asking for it back but was denied by a prosecutor.

“Take the deal, dad! My God, take the deal!” a woman in the gallery shouted to John Sadler during a Thursday morning hearing before Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak.

A bailiff escorted the woman out after she shouted at Sadler, 71, when he refused a deal offered by Assistant State’s Attorney Frank Byers. The terms of the plea deal were not disclosed.

Judge Bertani-Tomczak gave Sadler and his attorney, Ignatius Villasenor, time to discuss the offer and reconsider. And after thinking about it, Sadler came around, Villasenor told the judge. But by then it was too late.

“The offer is revoked,” Byers said, putting Sadler on a path for a trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter, the aggravated battery of a senior citizen, aggravated domestic battery, and concealing a homicide.

Sadler at first faced murder charges when the Romeoville police found the 10-day-old corpse of his wife, Carol Sadler, 66, inside their Benzie Circle home in July 2010.

John Sadler, a retired accountant, was jailed soon after the grisly discovery and held on a $3 million bond. But even though he reportedly admitted to police that he hit his wife in the head with a hammer, prosecutors reduced the charges after an autopsy revealed Carol Sadler actually died of a heart attack and not her head wound.

John Sadler’s bond was then reduced to $300,000. He promptly posted it and was released from custody.

Sadler faces up to seven years in prison if found guilty.

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