The Lichtmans' Barrington Hills mansion burned to the ground on January 23, 1996. Later, it would be discovered that the Lichtmans had been shot.
Days later, the fire Barrington police questioned Hommerson and his wife. Hommerson did glass work for the Lichtmans and is believed to have been at the home the day of the fire.
Hommerson is on trial for the murders after spending years in Mexico.
On Thursday, a Lake County jury heard testimony from Hommerson's wife. Ros Hommerson is a shoe designer who escaped communist Hungary then came to the U.S. with Peter. She testified that he told her to lie to police.
"He has told me if police ask, I need to say that he has come home for lunch on 23rd of January. I should tell them that he came home at two o'clock that afternoon," she testified.
The prosecutor asked, "Are any of those things true?"
She responded, "No."
After being questioned by police for 14 hours, Ros Hommerson described how they left town the next day, borrowed cash and another car, then drove to the Mexico border in Laredo, Texas.
Once they walked across the border, Ros Hommerson tearfully testified, "We said goodbye. He told me he loved me. He had to do this, and police would try to pin this on him because he was working at the Lichtmans on the 23rd."
Defense attorneys asked her about the decision to leave.
"You said you didn't want to lose everything you had."
She responded, "Yes."
"He told you police were trying to pin this on him."
"Yes."
"He told you he was innocent."
"Yes."
Ros Hommson is a witness for the prosecution. Under cross examination, she told jurors she was never charged for helping a murder suspect flee the country, and she admitted taking guns to relatives in Hungary.
