An Antioch man who nearly decapitated his wife with a machete and suffocated his 82-year-old mother pleaded guilty Monday in Lake County court. Lake County Judge Mark Levitt sentenced Billy Varner to 45 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for a single count of first-degree murder for killing his mother, Dorothy...
Prosecutors said Varner heard Henderson wheezing in her sleep after she had taken a sleeping pill and wanted to end her misery, so he hacked her across the jaw with the machete. Because she kept making noise, Varner then stabbed her in the chest repeatedly with a knife and left her in the bedroom.
On Oct. 28, worried that his mother might be suspicious about his wife, Varner suffocated her with a garbage bag and towel while she was playing solitaire, according to Prosecutor Ari Fisz.
