Appellate court upholds murder conviction of man who shot Glendale Heights resident

The Third District Appellate Court of Illinois on Aug. 30 affirmed the first-degree murder conviction of 65-year-old Donald Pelka in the 2018 shooting death of Kyle Gojdas, 29, of Glendale Heights.

In his appeal seeking a new trial, Pelka claimed the cumulative effect of three errors committed by the trial court deprived him of his right to a fair trial. The three alleged errors presented by Pelka address the admissibility of security video footage, the preclusion of specific evidence and jury instructions, according to a DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office news release.

About 3:30 a.m. Sept. 28, 2018, DuPage County Sheriff’s deputies and Bloomingdale police responded to a call of shots fired at the Bella One Spa, 25W319 Lake St., in unincorporated DuPage County near Bloomingdale.

Authorities found Gojdas, an employee at Bella One Spa, unresponsive and suffering from gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

About 10 minutes later, Hanover Park police saw Pelka speeding and conducted a traffic stop. During the stop, police learned that the car in which Pelka was driving matched the vehicle that was involved in the shooting. Pelka was arrested at this time.

An investigation discovered that Pelka was a customer at Bella One Spa and that he and Gojdas had gotten into an argument in the parking lot of the spa. Pelka pulled out a handgun and shot Gojdas twice in the torso, according to the release.

Bond for Pelka was set at $1 million. He has remained in custody at the DuPage County jail prior to his trial. On June 16, 2022, following a five-day trial, a jury found Pelka guilty of first-degree murder. On Aug. 18, 2022, he was sentenced to 50 years in the prison to be served at 100%.

In its decision, the appellate court rejected Pelka’s claims and found that the security video footage was properly admitted and there was “no indication of improper manipulation of the video,” according to the release.

The court also rejected Pelka’s claims that the trial court erred in not allowing evidence regarding bromantane allegedly found in the victim’s backpack after he was murdered stating, “the autopsy did not show the presence of any drugs in Gojdas’s system, there was not testimony from employees that he took bromantane,” according to the release.

Pelka’s final claim of abuse of discretion by the trial court also was rejected with the appellate court noting that the trial court gave the jury proper instructions.

“This decision will ensure that Mr. Pelka spends the rest of his life behind bars for the cowardly, unprovoked shooting of an unarmed man while he was at work,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in the release.