Chicago Jury Rejects Andrew Urdiales's Insanity Defense, Convicts Him of Two 1996 Murders
The former Marine, who once told a psychiatrist he wanted to be a serial killer, admitted killing Lynn Huber and Laura Uylaki and dumping their bodies in Wolf Lake.
Published
Andrew Urdiales once told his psychiatrist he wanted to be a serial killer. On May 23, 2002, a Chicago jury rejected his claim that he was insane and convicted him of first-degree murder in the 1996 killings of two women.
Before the trial, Urdiales, 37, had admitted killing Lynn Huber, 22, of Chicago, and Laura Uylaki, 25, of Hammond, Indiana, and dumping their bodies in Wolf Lake in Chicago. He also told Chicago police that since 1986 he had killed a woman in Livingston County, Illinois, and five women in California. The seven-week trial before Cook County Circuit Judge Edward Fiala turned on his sanity, and the jury took less than three hours to decide.
His lawyers argued that the former Marine was a deluded psychopath who believed the CIA ordered him to kill through a radio transmitter in his head. Three defense experts testified that he was a paranoid schizophrenic with a rare organic delusional disorder and brain damage from blows to the head. Two prosecution experts said he was not suffering from delusions when he committed the murders. Prosecutors told the jury that he had carefully cleaned up after the killings, stripping the women of their clothes to make them harder to identify. "He committed these crimes for the most obscene reason in mankind: because he wanted to and because he could," Assistant State's Attorney Frank Marek said.
A week later, on May 30, the same jury deliberated for about an hour before deciding that Urdiales should be sentenced to death. "He's a serial killer," the lead prosecutor, Jim McKay, said outside court. "He killed eight women. He showed no mercy for his victims."
Urdiales did not stay on death row. Gov. George Ryan commuted his sentence to life without parole in 2003. He was also convicted of a third Illinois murder in 2004, and in 2011 he was extradited to California to face charges in the five killings there.
The Chicago Tribune named the Hammond victim as Laura Uylaki in its 2002 reports and as Lori Uylaki in 2011.
Sources
- Ex-Marine guilty in '96 deaths, Chicago Tribune
- Death sentence ordered for killer of 2 women in '96, Chicago Tribune
- Convicted Illinois serial murderer extradited for murdering five Southern California women between 1986 and 1995, Orange County District Attorney
- Serial killer may face death penalty a third time, Chicago Tribune