Man Sentenced to Life for 1976 Murder

A stoic-looking Michael Whitney slowly and calmly responded to each question, knowing all along the answers brought him closer to spending the rest of his life in prison.

DuPage County Judge Kathryn Creswell methodically asked 58-year-old Whitney whether he understood what would happen if he pleaded guilty to murder. She repeatedly reminded Whitney he could choose to fight the 35-year-old charges that he stabbed Darlene Stack to death in a Wheaton home.

Creswell also told Whitney he could choose to be sentenced under the laws of 1976, which could mean a shorter punishment compared to the mandatory natural life sentence he faced under current laws because of a previous murder conviction.

"By natural life, I mean you will die in prison," Creswell said directly.

Whitney understood and persisted in his decision to plead guilty to Stack's murder during a Thursday morning hearing. As Creswell pointed out, Whitney - who would have been paroled in June 2012 in his previous murder case - received a life sentence.

The case's conclusion brought some closure for Stack's family, who wondered if justice would ever come for the 28-year-old woman who died six days after her birthday in 1976.

"This is Darlene's Day," Mark Douglass, the husband of Stack's niece, said outside court.

During the hearing, Douglass read a statement penned by Darlene's sister, Teri Stack. In it, she described how Darlene and their two other sisters survived orphanages and built a family out of difficult early circumstances only to be struck by tragedy.

"Despite the fact that Darlene lived in orphanages from age two, she believed in a future and was enthusiastic about furthering her education," Stack wrote in her statement, noting Darlene was working an medical technician intern at Central DuPage Hospital when she died.

It was the internship that brought Darlene to Wheaton to find a place to live. Teri Stack didn't go with her sister when she looked at a room for rent on Stoddard Avenue.

"I was under the weather and told her to go without me," Stack wrote. "That decision I made not to go with Darlene haunts me to this day. Perhaps I might have been able to see how dysfunctional the environment was and could have convinced her not to rent the room."

Prosecutors said Whitney and his girlfriend rented a room in the home's basement. He came home after a night of drinking on Aug. 17, 1976, and eventually went to Darlene Stack's room where he bound and gagged her, raped her and stabbed her 33 times, Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Ruggiero told Creswell.

Whitney threw the knife into the DuPage River and was protected for years by his girlfriend, who repeatedly told investigators Whitney was with him when Stack's was killed. Wheaton detectives revisited the case and were able to use modern DNA technology to link Whitney to semen found on sheets in Stack's room.

"This was a team effort, we're just thankful for the outcome," Wheaton detective Edward Fanning said after the hearing, sharing credit with fellow detective Andy Uhlir and state's attorney's office investigator Robert Guerrieri.

Their work led prosecutors to indict Whitney on murder charges and, ultimately, Whitney's decision to admit to the crime. Creswell expressed confidence in Whitney's understanding of what he was doing, even though conflicting reports questioned his mental health during sentencing in the 1982 murder.

"I'm concerned about your mental health today, as well as on the date of this incident," Creswell said before finding Whitney alert and aware of what she was asking.

She then asked Whitney whether he understood in August 1976 that what he did was wrong. Whitney said yes, without hesitation. After Ruggiero detailed Stack's killing, Creswell again asked Whitney "is that substantially what happened?" Again, Whitney responded yes with little pause.

Assistant Public Defender Mike Mara had no doubts that Whitney knew what he wanted to do and did that by pleading guilty.

"We didn't really talk about why," Mara said. "I'm guessing we'll never know why."

State’s Attorney Robert Berlin, in a statement, said, “It is my sincerest hope that while their pain may still linger, the family and friends of Darlene Stack may be able to finally close this horrible chapter of their lives.”

For Stack's family, the plea is something they weren't always sure would happen.

"For years and years we lived with the agonizing thought that Darlene's death would not be avenged," Teri Stack wrote in her statement. "We can now have closure, but the pain will always linger."