Asked what he missed most about his father, Juan Luna, 10-year-old Brian didn’t hesitate:
“I want to see his whole body, I want to hug him so badly,” the boy testified by videotape Wednesday, the last defense witness in the death penalty phase of Luna’s trial in Cook County Circuit Court.
Luna, 33, was convicted May 10 of murdering seven people in 1993 at the Brown’s Chicken restaurant in Palatine.
On Thursday, the jury could begin deliberating whether Luna will get the death penalty or a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Testimony from several other family members, a former teacher and a psychologist depicted Luna as a peaceful man.
Bruce Frumkin, a psychologist who evaluated Luna, said Luna had told him he had smoked five marijuana cigarettes, taken speed and drank several beers the night of the slayings.
“Mr. Luna likely had a reduced mental capacity at the time,” Frumkin said.
Frumkin called the crime an aberration in Luna’s life. But Assistant State’s Atty. Linas Kelecius referred to allegations that Luna abused animals and left a threatening message on the answering machine of the former girlfriend of James Degorski, also charged with the killings.
