Murder accomplice to serve 5 more years for perjury

WOODSTOCK – A convicted accomplice in the 2001 Burrito Express murder will serve five more years in prison for lying under oath about a ski mask.

Justin Houghtaling, 27, pleaded guilty to a single count of perjury Tuesday morning in exchange for a five-year prison term and for prosecutors dropping four other perjury charges against him. He could have received up to 10 years in prison for perjury.

That new sentence will be added to the 20-year sentence he received in November 2001 after pleading guilty to murder in exchange for testifying at the trials of triggerman Kenneth Smith and other alleged accomplices.

Houghtaling and Smith were fleeing a botched robbery in March 2001 when the would-be victims caught Houghtaling. Smith shot owner Raul Briseño as the 35-year-old father tried to use Houghtaling as a shield.

Houghtaling testified at Smith’s trial in August but recanted when Smith’s attorney’s questioned him. A month later, Houghtaling was indicted on five perjury charges that referenced Houghtaling denying he or Smith were involved in the slaying and that former prosecutor Robert Beaderstadt – who now is an associate judge in McHenry County – offered him $3,000 to implicate Smith, among other things.

Houghtaling pleaded guilty to a count involving a ski mask prosecutors believe he wore during the failed robbery. In August 2008, Houghtaling denied Smith gave him a ski mask, but in April 2002, he said Smith had given him the mask before the left the car to rob Burrito Express.

If the case had gone to trial, prosecutors would not have to prove which statements were lies, just that Houghtaling made contradictory statements about important facts under oath, Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Combs said. The indictment included his testimony from Smith’s 2008 trial and from the get-away driver’s trial in April 2002.

Houghtaling also has a federal case pending for allegedly mailing a letter that included a threat to injure a federal judge in March 2008. Attorneys in McHenry County did not immediately know the sentence Houghtaling would face if convicted in the federal case would overlap or be added onto the sentences for murder and perjury.