An Antioch man, who pleaded guilty last fall to killing his wife with a machete and suffocating his mother, has changed his mind about attempting to withdraw his negotiated plea deal.
Billy Varner, 55, filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea in November, but at a hearing Friday morning he told Judge Mark Levitt that he has reconsidered the issue and decided to stand behind his plea and accept his 45-year prison sentence.
Varner, who wrote the motion to withdraw his plea while in prison without the assistance of an attorney, did not elaborate Friday on his decision.
Defense attorney Thomas Meyers, who represented Varner at Friday’s hearing, said he could not comment on Varner’s decision beyond his client’s statement in court that he had decided it was in his best interest not to proceed.
Levitt then remanded Varner back to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Last October, Varner pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the 2013 deaths of his wife and mother.
The deal requires Varner to serve 100 percent of his sentence. If he lives long enough to be released and placed on parole, he would be 99 years old under calculations that include credit he received for time spent in Lake County Jail, officials said.
Varner, who has an eighth-grade education and said he has dyslexia, repeatedly told the judge that he understood the terms of the plea at the time he accepted it. His only comment to the court about the case was, “I’m sorry.”
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“Obviously, it’s effectively a life sentence,” Assistant State’s Attorney Ari Fisz said at the time the plea was accepted.
Fisz said the families of the victims and all of the police departments involved in the double homicide investigation “felt it was a just disposition.”
Varner was initially charged with 33 counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of his wife, Peggy Henderson, 61, and his mother, 82-year-old Dorothy Varner. He also was charged with two counts of attempting to conceal a homicide.
Under the agreement, he pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder and the remaining counts against him were dropped. He faced up to natural life in prison if the case would have gone to trial.
Varner killed his wife with a machete in her bedroom in an Antioch apartment the two shared on Oct. 26, 2013. Then he suffocated his mother two days later, according to authorities.
Police said he told investigators he killed his wife because she was suffering from a chronic disease, and killed his mother after he feared she was becoming suspicious about his wife’s death.
After the women were killed, police said Varner stole his brother’s van and drove to North Dakota, where he was arrested after he burst into a Catholic mass and robbed parishioners at gunpoint.
He was returned to Lake County following his arrest, and, deemed a flight risk, was held in Lake County Jail without bail until the plea agreement was reached and he was transferred to prison.
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