A man convicted of kidnapping and murdering a businessman by burying him alive in a coffin-like box "took the American dream and turned it into an Edgar Allan Poe nightmare," the prosecutor says.
Assistant Attorney General Michael Ficaro is seeking the death penalty for Daniel J. Edwards, 31, of Bourbonnais, who was convicted Monday.The jury deliberated about an hour before finding Edwards guilty in the Sept. 2 abduction of Stephen Small, who suffocated while buried in a rural section of Kankakee County in northeast Illinois before his family could pay the $1 million ransom.