A former Driscoll Catholic High School student was sentenced Friday to 38 years in prison for beating a man to death in 2000 in a DuPage County forest preserve.

A DuPage County jury convicted Luigi Adamo, 27, of first-degree murder Dec. 20 after his second trial for the murder. A previous jury could not reach a consensus in May 2007 after many hours of deliberation, and DuPage Circuit Judge George Bakalis declared a mistrial due to a hung jury.

The body of John Conrad, 31, was discovered Oct. 28, 2000, in Pratt’s Wayne Woods Forest Preserve.

Adamo was also order to pay restitution to Conrad's family to cover the cost of his funeral and to pay for the three assistant state's attorneys who prosecuted the case.

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3:04 p.m.:

A sentencing hearing is under way for a former Driscoll Catholic High School student convicted of beating a man to death in 2000 in a DuPage County forest preserve.

A DuPage County jury convicted Luigi Adamo, 27, of first-degree murder Dec. 20 after his second trial for the murder. A previous jury could not reach a consensus in May 2007 after many hours of deliberation, and DuPage Circuit Judge George Bakalis declared a mistrial due to a hung jury.

The body of John Conrad, 31, was discovered Oct. 28, 2000, in Pratt’s Wayne Woods Forest Preserve.

Conrad’s mother, June, said in court Friday that her son, who was addicted to drugs and alcohol, always had a home when he was sober. Conrad was homeless when he wasn’t living with his parents in Schaumburg.

“Our whole world went into a tailspin,” June Conrad said, reading from her victim’s impact statement. “Our lives as we knew them would never be the same.”

An initial investigation of Conrad’s murder did not reveal any leads, and the case went cold until it was reopened more than two years later by the DuPage County sheriff’s cold-case unit.

Conrad approached Adamo, Jason Reardon and Eric Ewing at a Carol Stream Denny’s on Oct. 26, 2000, and asked them for a ride to an Addison apartment, authorities said.

After dropping him off, the three men later returned to pick Conrad up, taking him to the forest preserve where Adamo and Reardon, 24, of Aurora beat him to death with a tire iron and stole his wallet, which contained $8, authorities said. Ewing, who was driving, left the area before his friends returned to the car.

Adamo and Reardon were arrested in July 2003 and charged with first-degree murder. The following year, Reardon reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in exchange for his testimony against Adamo. He pleaded guilty to armed robbery in October 2004 and was sentenced to 19 years in state prison.

A former employee of the Cinnabon store in Stratford Square Mall also testified Friday. He said Adamo beat him up in the mall parking lot a few days after the murder over a dispute about a girl they both knew.

Former Driscoll Assistant Principal Michael Neis testified about discipline problems Adamo had when he was a student at the school.

A sentence is expected Friday afternoon.