A deadlocked McHenry County jury this week was just a vote shy of convicting Mario Casciaro of intimidation and first degree murder in the 2002 disappearance of 17-year-old Brian Carrick, according to an alternate juror who talked to a member of the panel that deadlocked 11-1 on the charges.
“If they could have swayed that one individual this would all have been over,” said Carrick’s father, William Carrick. “I was encouraged … that they didn’t come back with a not-guilty verdict, I’m even more encouraged” that only one juror held out against conviction.
In a separate vote on charges that substituted “unlawful restraint” for intimidation, the jury voted 11-1 the opposite way — that Casciaro was not guilty, according to the alternate, Donald Listak, and other sources.
“Unfortunately, Brian could have possibly ran or something,” said Listak, a regional sales manager for a steel company. “… He wasn’t really trapped, he was in a room but there were doors that led out.”
But Listak, who listened to all the testimony in the eight-day trial before being excused from deliberations, said he “felt strongly” that prosecutors had proved Casciaro guilty of intimidating Carrick, and that Casciaro was ultimately responsible for the Johnsburg teen’s death.
Prosecutors have said they will retry the case. Judge Sharon Prather declared a mistrial after jurors announced their deadlock. Casciaro, who remains free on $500,000 bond, declined comment as he left the courtroom on Wednesday, and did not respond to an interview request Thursday.
During the trial, prosecutors tried to make the case that Casciaro called in Shane Lamb, a convicted felon at least 100 pounds bigger than Carrick, to scare him into giving Casciaro money owed for drugs.
During the “shake down” prosecution witnesses said Lamb hit Carrick at least two times in the produce cooler at Val’s Grocery store in Johnsburg, where all three men worked, and he died. Lamb, who was given immunity in the teen’s death, took the stand and acknowledged that scenario. Carrick’s body has never been found.
Michael Combs, chief of the criminal division in the state’s attorney’s office, declined to comment on the outcome of the trial, except to say that the state will retry the case. A status hearing is scheduled for March 16.
Defense attorney Brian Telander said the jury votes show him that in the next trial “we need to really bring out in a more clear, fashion things that affect the credibility of Shane Lamb.”
Telander called it “disturbing” that anyone could believe what Lamb said at trial. Telander reiterated his contention that Lamb has repeatedly lied about the case to many different people.
“He keeps changing his story, and its after he cuts a deal he say’s ‘now I’m finally telling the truth,’” Telander said.
He added it is also troubling that it is Lamb who admitted he delivered the fatal blows and yet it’s Casciaro who faces up to 60 years in prison. Lamb faces no charges related to Carrick’s death.
“How that person gets zero, how can that be fair?” Casciaro’s lawyer said.
Casciaro’s sister, Joanne Casciaro, said in an e-mail that the family is “extremely disappointed that the jurors did not return a verdict of not guilty.”
She wrote that physical evidence presented during the trial “speaks for itself.”
“Shane (Lamb) implicated Mario because he was given extreme leniency in his cocaine conviction … and because he thought Mario implicated him to the FBI,” Joanne Casciaro said in the email. “The State’s Attorney’s Office gave immunity to Shane Lamb and that is a choice they will have to live with.”
“Where is the justice in that?” she added. “Is the State seeking the truth or are they seeking a conviction?”
