Child Murderer Sentenced To Death

JOLIET, Ill. - Twice-convicted child killer Timothy Buss was sentenced to death yesterday for murdering a 10-year-old Washington boy last summer.

Jurors deliberated for almost four hours. They asked to see photographs of the crime scene before informing Judge Gerald Kinney of their verdict. The jury could also have sentenced Buss to life in prison without parole.

Buss, 28, was convicted June 26 of first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated unlawful restraint in the death of Christopher Meyer of Walla Walla. The jury found him eligible for the death penalty the next day.

Christopher disappeared Aug. 7. He last was seen playing along the banks of the Kankakee River in Aroma Park.

He was stabbed more than 40 times before his body was found in a shallow grave eight days later in Kankakee River State Park, about 25 miles away.

The boy lived with his father in Walla Walla and had been spending the summer with his mother in Illinois when he disappeared.

Buss matched descriptions of a man seen talking to Christopher just before the boy disappeared, police said.

State Police evidence technicians testified during Buss' trial that DNA tests matched blood found in Buss' car to Christopher's blood and that a footprint on the boy's grave was consistent with Buss' foot.

In 1981, Buss, then 13, was convicted of killing 5-year-old Tara Sue Huffman of Bradley, Ill.

He served half of a 25-year sentence for her murder and was paroled in 1993.

Jurors heard about Huffman's murder yesterday, but testimony about that crime was not allowed during Buss' trial.

Christopher's murder prompted passage of a Illinois law requiring authorities to notify residents when someone who has sexually abused or murdered a child moves to their community.