”If there were divine justice . . . Lawrence Andrews would be dead and Richard Steinbrecher would be alive,” said Cook County Criminal Court Judge James Schreier as he sentenced Andrews to 70 years in prison for murder.
Schreier imposed the sentence in the death of Richard Steinbrecher, 19, who was shot and killed as he drove to his first job as a professional musician.
Steinbrecher, of Glenview, had taught himself to play the guitar in 7th grade and formed a group called Tryad while attending Highland Park High School.
The judge had listened as Steinbrecher`s parents, Richard and Knox Steinbrecher, told him how the crime had shattered their lives.
”There won`t be a day in my life that I won`t weep for him,” the father said after the sentencing Friday. ”It`s over, and now`s the time to begin the healing process. But as we all know, healing is never over. There are always scars.”
According to trial evidence, Andrews, 20, approached Steinbrecher`s car Feb. 18, 1984, when Steinbrecher and his girlfriend stopped at the Kostner Avenue exit of the Eisenhower Expressway.
Andrews and his alleged accomplice, Ricky Paxton, 23, were planning to rob the couple, said Assistant State`s Attorneys Dane Cleven and Art Neville. Andrews held a gun to Steinbrecher`s head, demanded the couple`s money and then shot him once.
”It is this highway banditry and murder which are making present-day life in this city uncivilized,” the judge said. ”The cruel act bespeaks the cruel heart of Mr. Andrews.”
Cleven and Neville asked the judge to impose a sentence of natural life in prison, but defense lawyer Thomas Condon asked for a more lenient sentence. ”The death happened as an accident during the course of that armed robbery,” Condon said.
Andrews himself told the judge, ”I`d like to say to you and the family of the victim that I`m sorry that it happened. . . . I`m asking you, Your Honor, to have some kind of mercy.”
The judge said, ”I will, by my sentence, give the defendant some hope.” But he added that it is ”not a hope of seeing the light of day and freedom before middle age, because the crime and the impact of the crime cry against it.”
Paxton was acquitted of murder, but he will be tried later on charges of armed robbery and aggravated battery.
