Man Who 'Gives Crack Addicts A Bad Name' Convicted For Ex-Girlfriend's Murder

WHEATON, Ill. (STMW) - A Crystal Lake man described by prosecutors as someone who gives "crack addicts a bad name" was sentenced to 120 years in prison Thursday for murdering his former girlfriend after breaking into her home.

Ronald O'Rourke, 47, was convicted of fatally stabbing ex-girlfriend Pamela Howat when she caught him inside her Hanover Park home looking for money he could steal to buy crack cocaine.

O'Rourke faced a possible life sentence for killing the 51-year-old Howat on June 6, 2009.

Calling his mother's death "a horrible atrocity," Howat's son asked during Thursday's sentencing that DuPage County Judge Kathryn Creswell send O'Rourke to prison for the rest of his life.

"A community deserves to be safe from the likes of Ronald O'Rourke," said Howat's son, James. "He has earned the maximum sentence possible."

Creswell didn't impose a life sentence outright, but instead ordered O'Rourke to serve a 100-year prison term for the slaying. Creswell then tacked on an additional 20-year prison term for home invasion.

O'Rourke intially claimed to police that Pamela Howat attacked him with garden clippers when he came to her home and insisted she was stabbed as they struggled over the lawn tool.

At his trial last September, however, O'Rourke testified that he came to Howat's home to try to borrow money so he could buy drugs and found her lying dead just inside her door.

Prosecutor Joseph Ruggiero had scoffed at that claim, telling jurors at one point that O'Rourke gives "crack addicts a bad name."

Jurors deliberated for less than four hours before rejecting O'Rourke's claims and convicting him of first-degree murder and home invasion.

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