Brett Hooghkirk was sentenced to 27 years in jail Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to murdering Lisa Garretson and setting fire to her apartment on Aug. 21, 1988.

In a surprise move, Hooghkirk’s case was moved up on the court calender from a scheduled Jan. 28 hearing.

Hooghkirk smiled at the small group of his relatives in the courtroom as he entered and talked with other prisoners while waiting for his case to be called.

Circuit Court Judge Philip DiMarzio, 16th District, said he discussed the Garretson murder case during a Nov. 26 pre-trial conference and asked if Hooghkirk had any objections to another private conference in the judge’s chambers.

“No, sir, I have no objections,” Hooghkirk replied.

DiMarzio said Hooghkirk would not be present during the conference, but about halfway through the 20-minute session, the defendant was called into chambers.

A poker-faced Hooghkirk walked out five minutes later and shook his head once as he sat down.

Garretson’s family members stood quietly at the right of the bench and a group of DeKalb Police officers watched intently as Hooghkirk pleaded guilty to strangling Garretson and torching her body to conceal the crime.

As the judge ruled on the case, Hooghkirk’s mother shrugged off her male companion’s offer of his shirt tail to dry the tears from her eyes.

DiMarzio said the 27-year sentence for Garretson’s murder and the 10 years for sentence will be served concurrently. However, DiMarzio added it was not necessarily the punishment he would have assigned to Hooghkirk if the case went to a bench or jury trial. DiMarzio did not clarify whether he would have increased or decreased the time.

Additional charges of rape and battery were dropped. DeKalb County State’s Attorney Mike Coghlan would not comment on why the charges were waived.

Hooghkirk will be sent to Statesville Diagnostic Center in Joliet for evaluation, including a psychoanalysis, before his place of incarceration is decided.