Man charged in Granite City murder case says he’s too sick to be in jail

The defense attorney for a 70-year-old man charged this week in a decades-old Granite City murder case asked that he be released from jail until trial, saying he is ill and unable to harm anyone.

The request was denied. Associate Judge John Hackett ordered Albert Lee Zigler held at the Madison County Jail.

Zigler was charged Friday with two counts of first-degree murder in the 1993 death of Randy Gail Sperino. Investigators used forensic genetic genealogy to identify Zigler as a suspect, comparing male DNA found on swabs from Sperino’s body with DNA from people who used commercial genealogical testing sites such as FamilyTreeDNA.

At Wednesday’s pretrial detention hearing, Public Defender Mary Copeland said Zigler has numerous medical conditions, including heart problems, Parkinson’s disease and dementia, and requires constant care. She said his family is searching for a nursing home placement and said there are various pretrial release conditions the court could subject him to, including an electronic ankle monitor.

“He is physically incapable of physically inflicting harm on anybody,” Copeland said.

Copeland said Zigler was recovering from a heart attack in April when investigators first approached him at a hospital for a DNA sample and to question him about the crime. The nurse in charge did not think Zigler fully understood what was happening, Copeland said, adding that he was “not in the capacity to be making any admissions.”

In addition to stressing Zigler’s poor health, Copeland also said he did not have a violent criminal record.

Assistant State’s Attorney Ryan Kemper pushed back on Copeland’s description of Zigler.

“A crime of this nature is so horrific and antisocial,” Kemper said. “There’s no doubt he could harm someone.”

Hackett said the DNA evidence and Zigler’s confession to law enforcement were enough to presume he could have committed the crime, and that no conditions could mitigate the threat his release could pose to others.

More case details emerge at pre-trial detention hearing

Randy Sperino’s son, Wesley, was a teenager when she died. For the past three decades, he didn’t know if he would ever learn what happened to his mother.

“It’s been nearly 33 years, and I never thought this day would come,” said Wesley Sperino at a Tuesday news conference announcing the charges. “I finally get closure and finally know who did this. Now I’ll be able to progress through life and open up a new door, a new chapter.”

Now, details are slowly emerging.

Kemper said Randy Sperino was last seen entering a pickup truck around 8 p.m. on Nov. 9, 1993. Her naked body was discovered a few hours later in a field near Hanfelder Lane in rural Granite City. Her skull was fractured multiple times by a heavy blunt object, he said.

Kemper said analysis from vaginal swabs showed male DNA, which investigators later determined matched Zigler’s DNA. Investigators also determined Zigler lived near where Sperino’s body was found and drove a truck similar to the one she was last seen in.

After investigators found Zigler’s relatives through a commercial genealogical testing database, they interviewed him multiple times, Kemper summarized.

Kemper said Zigler eventually told law enforcement that he picked up a hitchhiker the night Randy died, they had consensual sex and the hitchhiker asked him to pay $100. He said he did not have money and she began striking the truck with a metal object.

Zigler then told law enforcement he got hold of the weapon and struck the hitchhiker multiple times, then dropped her in a field, not knowing if she was alive or dead, according to Kemper’s synopsis.

“This confession, however, occurred after 11,863 days of repeated deception,” Hackett wrote in Zigler’s detention order. “That deception continued through the initial investigation where (Zigler) initially denied his involvement in this crime until confronted with overwhelming evidence. This heinous murder and (Zigler’s) 30+ years of deceptive and deceitful behavior gives this Court no confidence that he would adhere to any condition this court imposes.”

Copeland did not comment on the judge’s order.

This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 5:21 PM.