Husband Held in Schoolteacher Wife's Killing

Oct. 2, 2010— -- The father of a former star Northwestern University quarterback and a Chicago sports reporter is being held on $2 million bond in the murder of his schoolteacher wife.

A judge Friday rejected a request from Allan Kustok's lawyer to reduce the bond to $200,000, and Kustok was ordered held at the Cook County Jail.

Kustok requested protective custody and after undergoing a mental and physical evaluation, he was being held at Cermak Hospital Friday night. Authorities would not comment on his health.

Although many details of the incident were discuss at Kustok's bond hearing Friday, prosecutors did not say what they thought a possible motive might be in the shooting death of his 58-year-old wife, Anita "Jeanie" Kustok.

Police also did not release any other details in the case during a news conference.

Allan Kustok is facing a first-degree murder charge for allegedly shooting his wife in the face in their Orland Park home, and then waiting approximately 90 minutes to drive her to Palos Community Hospital on Wednesday morning.

Police said that after Kustok drove his wife to the hospital, he gave them a voluntary videotaped statement at the Orland Park Police Department.

According to prosecutors, Kustok said he heard a loud noise Wednesday morning in the bedroom and found his wife dead on the floor with her arms folded across her chest with a gun in her hand.

He said he picked her up in his arms and put the gun to his head but instead shot several rounds into the bedroom armoire, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors also said he waited more than an hour to bring her to a hospital and wrapped her in his own robe and bed sheets.

"I believe any reasonable person would find it unreasonable to wait an hour and a half before you take your loving spouse to a hospital with a gunshot wound to the head," said Peter Troy, an assistant state's attorney with the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.

A medical examiner rule the woman's death a homicide, and said that bullet trajectory evidence contradicted Allan Kustok's statement that his wife shot herself.

Sources say that police also did not believe Kustok's story that his wife took her own life. She was right-handed, but she was killed by a bullet that hit the left side of her face.

"The gunshot wound could not have been self-inflicted to her left cheek, accidentally or otherwise," Orland Park Police Department Chief Timothy McCarthy said.

Authorities say that Allan Kustok said he found his wife holding a .357 caliber handgun.

"I found it striking that, according to him, she was lying on her back with her arms crossed and a weapon of significant power and weight was still in her right hand," said Troy.

The Kustoks were the parents of Zak and Sarah Kustok.

Zak Kustok was a starting quarterback for Northwestern University in the late '90s and was signed by the Chicago Bears in 2004. He was released from his two-year contract shortly thereafter.

Sarah was a standout basketball player at DePaul University who has been a sports anchor and reporter at Comcast SportsNet Chicago for almost two years.

In a statement, Comcast SportsNet Chicago said: "We are all deeply saddened by this tragic news. Our thoughts and prayers are with Sarah and her family."

Both Zak and Sarah Kustok were in court Friday and the family's lawyer said they believed their father was innocent.

"Jeanie Kustok was a saint. She lived her life for everyone else, for her family and for God. It was a life we all should emulate. A true parent elevates the interests and welfare of their children above everything else, including until the end," Kustok family attorney Pete Rush said.

"The Kustok children know and believe that their parents were true parents. The Kustok children know that their father could not have committed the act that the state has accused him of," he said.

Sarah and Zak Kustok held hands and hugged as gruesome details of their mother's death were recounted in court Friday. Other than the family lawyer's statement, they had no comment.

Police said there were no orders of protection for the Kustoks and officers had not previously been called to their home.

Other than a 27-year-old aggravated battery charge during college, Allan Kustok's record is clean. Sources told the Southtown Star he had been having an affair.

"We are continuing to investigate all of the circumstances surrounding the domestic relations of the defendant and his late wife," Troy said.

ABC Chicago station WLS-TV contributed to this report.