Vaughn sentenced for killing wife, children

Christopher Vaughn of Oswego will spend the rest of his life in prison for the murders of his wife and children.

Will County Judge Daniel Rozak sentenced Vaughn to four consecutive terms of life in prison with no possibility of parole for killing his wife, Kimberly, and their three children, Abigayle, 12, Cassandra, 11 and Blake, 8.
It was an emotional end to a five and a half year-long ordeal for the family of Kimberly Vaughn, as her father, mother, twin sister and brother-in-law talked with reporters after hearing the sentence.

Vaughn sat silent in court today.

“In my heart, I was hoping he would open up and say why I did this, or what my justification was or why I thought I would get away with it. Or what his motivation was,” Kimberly’s father Del Phllips said.  “If he would have said that, it would have helped a little on the closure aspect.”

Earlier, Kimberly’s twin sister Jennifer Ledbetter told the judge  “our hearts ache with the knowledge that they were priceless to everyone but the one man who should have loved them more than their own life.”

Kimberly’s mom called Vaughn in court a selfish coward” who had “destroy(ed) the very best thing that he had, a loving wife and three amazing children” and caused incredible pain for the surviving family.

Vaughn murdered his wife and kids, prosecutors say, because he saw them as obstacles to his dream of a new life in Canada.  During a family outing, Vaughn shot and killed his wife  and three kids in their SUV, while shooting himself to make it look as though Kimberly did the crime.

Will County state’s attorney James Glasgow praised his team, while turning most of his words to Vaughn himself, who escaped being tried under the now abolished death penalty.

“There isn’t a punishment which fits this crime,” he said.  “You could lock him up for 500 lifetimes and it would not compensate the victims in this case or the family members.”

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