Court affirms man’s 90 year sentence for 1993 double homicide
Sean Helgesen | DuPage County State's Attorney
DUPAGE COUNTY, Ill. - A court Monday affirmed a 90-year sentence for a man who stabbed two people to death in 1993 in DuPage County.
In 1995, Sean Helgesen, who was seventeen-years-old at the time, was found guilty on ten counts of murder for the fatal stabbing of Peter and Diana Robles and sentenced to natural life in prison, according to the DuPage County State’s Attorney office.
April 17, 1993, Sean Helgesen and Eric Robles arrived at Robles parent’s home and stabbed Peter twenty-two times in the face, neck, chest and arms in a downstairs laundry room, the state’s attorney’s office said. The pair then went upstairs and found Diana, on crutches, and stabbed her twenty-nine times in the face, neck chest and arms.
Peter died at home and Diana died a short time later, the state’s attorney’s office said.
Following a 2012 Supreme Court ruling, Miller v. Alabama, which prohibited mandatory sentences of natural life without the possibility of parole for juveniles, Helgesen was resentenced to serve two ninety-year sentences concurrently, the state’s attorney’s office said.
Helgesen then appealed, arguing the sentence amounted to a de facto life sentence, the state’s attorney’s office said. However, the Second District Appellate Court of Illinois affirmed the sentence Monday.
"I would like to thank the Appellate Court for their thorough analysis of this case and their finding that the sentences imposed are indeed appropriate," DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said Monday. "The brutal, pre-meditated murder of Peter and Diana Robles is among the worst crimes DuPage County has ever had to endure and shook the entire community to its core, the reverberations of which can still be felt today."
Under sentencing guidelines in place at the time, Helgesen is required to serve 50% of his sentence.