Jury deliberating fate of man accused of killing Johnsburg teen in 2002
BY DAN ROZEK Staff Reporter drozek@suntimes.com January 31, 2012 2:01PM
Mario Casciaro
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Updated: February 1, 2012 9:59AM
The only evidence tying Mario Casciaro to the murder of missing Johnsburg teenager Brian Carrick was concocted testimony from a beefy felon who admitted punching out Carrick just before he vanished, Casciaro’s attorney said Tuesday.
But that testimony from Shane Lamb was bolstered by other witnesses and proves Casciaro caused the teen’s death when he ordered Lamb to collect a drug debt for him from Carrick, McHenry County prosecutors argued.
Jurors deliberated for about eight hours Tuesday without reaching a verdict in the bizarre case, which has the now 28-year-old Casciaro fighting murder charges even though Carrick’s body has never been found. The 17-year-old Carrick disappeared on Dec. 20, 2002 from the grocery store in Johnsburg where he worked with Casciaro and Lamb.
The seven-man, five-woman jury is expected to resume working Wednesday.
Defense attorneys blasted Lamb’s testimony, saying that for years he denied knowing anything about Carrick’s disappearance and presumed death, but then implicated Casciaro in 2010 after receiving immunity from being prosecuted himself.
“You know he’s lying,” defense attorney Brian Telander told jurors before they began deliberating. “A guilty verdict based on the word of Shane Lamb would be a travesty of justice.”
Prosecutors have argued Carrick was killed in a grocery store cooler when Casciaro and Lamb confronted him to try to collect money he owed for marijuana.
Drops of Carrick’s blood were found in the cooler and back hallway at Val’s Foods after Carrick vanished.
“It’s really a very simple case,” prosecutor Michael Combs said of Carrick’s death. “The defendant sicced Shane Lamb on him. He gets killed.”
Lamb testified earlier that Casciaro called him to the store to order Carrick to pay money he owed Casciaro for marijuana.
Lamb, a 240-pound convicted felon, admitted he punched the teen unconscious in a produce cooler because he lost his temper while arguing about the money Carrick owed, though he acknowledged Casciaro never told him to punch or harm Carrick.
In exchange for his testimony, Lamb was given immunity from being prosecuted for Carrick’s disappearance, but received a six-year prison term for an unrelated drug offense.
“They gave him a free murder,” Telander said of prosecutors who agreed to the deal.
Telander disputed that Casciaro ordered Lamb to collect money for him — and repeatedly questioned why none of the fingerprints or blood droplets found in the store were from Casciaro.
Several drops of blood were linked to another store employee who was never charged in the case, he said, adding other employees also said they never heard a scuffle or saw a body.
“There’s too many maybes in this case,” Telander said.
To be convicted, jurors have to determine that Carrick’s death was a “direct and forseeable consequence” of actions taken by Casciaro.
Prosecutors insisted Casciaro’s steps to recruit Lamb and then together confront Carrick in a store cooler make him responsible for the teen’s death.
“This was a shakedown. What do you think is going to happen when you use a guy like Shane Lamb?” Combs said.
And Lamb had no reason to wrongly implicate Casciaro because he already had received immunity against being prosecuted himself.
“He told the truth,” Combs said.
Casciaro faces up to 60 years in prison if he is convicted of first-degree murder charges.
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