A jury in Cook County, Ill., has convicted a technician for Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) subcontractor Premier Cable Communications of first-degree murder. Anthony Triplett faces life in prison without parole for murdering 23-year-old Urszula Sakowska, who let him into her home to fix her Internet service in 2006.
At the time of the murder, Triplett was already a suspect in another slaying, and Chicago police came under fire after it was revealed that Triplett's DNA was not matched to the scene of the first slaying until after the second murder. Sakowska's fiancé has sued Comcast and Premier, alleging that they allowed Triplett to continue to go out on house calls even though police had notified them that he was a suspect in the killing of a client. That suit is pending in Cook County Circuit Court.
Triplett has maintained that Sakowska let him into her home but that he didn't have a drill he needed and therefore left without completing the service. However, that testimony conflicted with other evidence, including the original work order Triplett filed with his company claiming Sakowska had not answered the door.
While major cable operators have made significant improvements in their customer service operations in the last decade, high-profile incidents such as this one continue to create challenges for operators nationwide.
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