Trial set for cable repairman accused of 2006 slaying

A jury was selected Tuesday to decide the fate of Anthony Triplett, a cable repairman charged with raping and strangling Urszula Sakowska, 23, in December 2006 when he went to her Southwest Side home to fix their Internet service.
At the time of Sakowska's slaying, Triplett was a suspect in the similar killing of Janice Ordidge, 39, who was found raped and strangled seven weeks earlier in the bathtub of her Hyde Park home. Triplett had been sent to Ordidge's home to fix her Internet service, authorities allege.
Chicago police came under fire after Triplett's arrest when it was revealed that his DNA had not been sent to the state crime lab for comparison with evidence found at the scene of Ordidge's slaying, despite his being an early suspect. The DNA matched, and critics contended Sakowska's slaying could have been prevented if the tests had been done sooner.
Prosecutors had been seeking the death penalty for Triplett before it was abolished in 2011. In the meantime, Triplett's team of lawyers has gone through several changes and filed a lengthy stream of motions to suppress evidence.
Prosecutors are trying Triplett only for Sakowska's slaying but intend to bring out evidence that he also killed Ordidge. He faces a possible life sentence if he is convicted.
According to prosecutors, Triplett went to Ordidge's home in the 1600 block of East 50th Street on Oct. 21, 2006, to fix her Comcast Internet service. While he was there, Ordidge allegedly told a friend over the phone that Triplett had made remarks about her appearance that made her uncomfortable. Two days later, police officers conducting a well-being check found her body in the bathtub, prosecutors said.
Police interviewed Triplett after the slaying and took forensic samples from the scene. According to a timeline released later by police, the state crime lab received the samples in early November, but DNA testing that linked Triplett to Ordidge's attack was not finished until Dec. 12, four days after Sakowska's murder