Johnsburg cold case

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Attorney asks trial court to agree exonerated man is innocent in Johnsburg murder of teen

Mario Casciaro, the only person imprisoned in connection with the haunting 2002 disappearance and presumed death of a 17-year-old Johnsburg resident — who eventually walked free — is asking a McHenry County judge to officially acceede to his innocence.

Today Casciaro is a free man about to pursue a law degree, and is seeking to have the presiding judge in his conviction, McHenry County Judge Sharon Prather, issue a “Certificate of Innocence.”

The move – essentially asking the trial judge to agree with the ruling of the appellate judges who exonerated Casciaro last year – is a step toward Casciaro seeking compensation from the state for the 22 months he spent inside Menard Correctional Center in Chester Ill. as an innocent man, his attorney Kathleen Zellner said.

Zellner won Casciaro’s freedom last year after arguing details of his conviction in the infamous cold case mystery of missing teen Brian Carrick at the 2nd District Appellate Court in Elgin. On Wednesday, Casciaro’s 33 birthday, she filed the petition in the McHenry County Clerk’s office.

In court Wednesday McHenry County State’s Attorney Michael Combs asked Prather for time to review and respond to the petition. The matter is up next June 29. Outside the courtroom Combs declined to comment.

Prosecutors have stood by their case against Casciaro that he is guilty of first-degree murder with intimidation because he set into motion the events that led to the death of Carrick inside a grocery store cooler on Dec. 20, 2002.

Casciaro, whose family were part owners of what was Val’s Finer Foods in Johnsburg, faced two juries. The first in 2012 ended in a mistrial and the second a year later resulted in his conviction.

Casciaro, who has long maintained his innocence, was sentenced to 26 years in prison. The state’s case relied heavily on the words of another man, Shane Lamb, who said at Casciaro’s instruction he confronted Carrick on a drug dealing debt owed to Casciaro.

Lamb, currently in prison on unrelated weapons charges who received full immunity in the Carrick case in exchange for his testimony, testified that he argued with Carrick inside a produce cooler.

He detailed for jurors in both trials that he became angry and punched Carrick out cold. He told jurors as Carrick laid bleeding and unconscious Casciaro told him to leave and he’d handle the body.

At the time all three men worked at the grocery store.

Carrick’s blood was found in and around the cooler but his body has never been recovered.

In overturning the conviction outright, the appellate court noted, among several factors, the lack of physical evidence to convict Casciaro. They also said that Lamb’s details of the crime did not show there was any intimidation by Casciaro nor did his tale, if at all true, line up with blood spatter found in and around the produce cooler.

“Lamb’s entire testimony was so inconsistent, contradictory and incredible that it was palpably contrary to the verdict,” appellate judges wrote in their ruling.

The judge’s also noted Lamb later said he made up the story at the instruction of McHenry County State’s Attorneys seeking to convict Casciaro. Combs has vehemently denied this accusation.

Zellner has pointed to another man as being responsible for Carrick’s death. But this man was never brought to trial and died of a heroin overdose between Casciaro’s two trials.

After Casciaro’s release from prison in last year, prosecutors said they stood by their case. They attempted to have their case heard at the Illinois Supreme Court. They were denied in March.

Motioning the court to issue the certificate of innocence is a state law sought in cases where a person is exonerated and there is an outright reversal, Zellner explained.

“It is state law. Many of these have been granted to those (wrongfully convicted) who have been released,” Zellner said. “The statute provides that if you have an outright reversal, which is what we have that we can apply for this … I believe that this will be granted.”

After this certificate of innocence is granted, Zellner can move forward with filing a petition with the Illinois Court of Claims for compensation owed to Casciaro for the time he was “wrongfully incarcerated,” she said.

Should the trial court deny the petition Zellner said she would take it to the appellate court.

Carrick was one of 14 children from a strong Irish Catholic family who grew up in the large white farmhouse across the street from the grocery store. Both of his parents, Terry and William, have died without fully knowing what happened to their son. Neither ever turned vengeful in their quest for answers. Over the years, each expressed just wanting to know the truth so they could forgive and move on.

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Flashback to 2007 – My first interviews with William and Terry Carrick on the 5 year anniversary of Brian’s disappearance : Who knew all these years later where this story would be? Both Carricks have now died and still no one knows where Brian is.

Another season without answers Johnsburg teen disappeared in ’02

By Amanda Marrazzo | Special to the Chicago Tribune December 21, 2007

Time has only brought more pain to Terry Carrick instead of healing.

It has been five years since her youngest son, Brian, went missing from the family’s Johnsburg home. If his body had been found, she could have buried him. If someone had been charged with his death, maybe she could have forgiven.

“It is very difficult to forgive when you don’t know who you are forgiving,” she said. “It is important people keep talking, because someday someone with a conscience will not be able to carry [the truth] around any longer.”

Police say the teen, a junior at Johnsburg High School, was the victim of foul play.

“Somebody out there knows what happened, and at some point in time their conscience is going to make them come forward, and we would like to have that [be] sooner [rather] than later,” said Johnsburg Police Chief Ken Rydberg.

It was five days before Christmas 2002 and nothing seemed out of the ordinary at the large farmhouse where the 14 Carrick brothers and sisters celebrated the holidays.

Brian Carrick, 17, left the home Friday, Dec. 20, at 6:15 p.m. and walked across the road to Val’s Foods, where he worked stocking shelves. He cashed his $150 paycheck, bought a pizza and told a co-worker that he planned to rent a movie at the video store down the road and that he would be at home for the rest of the night. (update: these details have changed since this story ran, timeline is later, attorneys claim he went back to the store between 6:30and 6:45. The story also changed in that he bought the pizza earlier like 4:30 after cashing his check, went home ate it then went back out to the store)

He never arrived at the video store or returned home.

“I don’t even remember what I was doing and I didn’t even notice him leaving,” said William Carrick, Brian’s father. “There was no premonition.”

But Terry Carrick sensed something was wrong Saturday, when she found out he didn’t show up for work.

“Brian never missed work. If he was late he’d call. If they called for him to come in on his day off, he was out the door,” she said.

She went to the Johnsburg Police Department that afternoon and urged them to start looking for her son.

A day later, investigators found blood inside Val’s produce-storage space and on a trash compactor, which later was confirmed to be Brian’s blood.

Volunteers and dozens of investigators, including the FBI, searched areas Carrick was known to frequent. They also looked at a 2-mile stretch along the banks of the Fox River but found nothing.

Brian was the 11th in the family of nine boys and five girls. The children, ranging in age from 17 to 34, have suffered emotionally over the loss of their brother.

However, each has achieved successes. One is a film editor, another an electrical engineer, and two are occupational therapists.

Just as the last four seasons have been, this Christmas will be quiet. The tree has yet to be put up.

The family has found strength within their small town and around the world. Terry Carrick said there are churches in South Africa and Rome praying for her family. There have been knocks at the door from friends and strangers offering support.

On New Year’s Day 2003, more than 1,000 people attended a candlelight vigil outside the grocery store. On the one-year anniversary, a standing-room-only memorial service was held in St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Johnsburg.

A development in the case came this June. Mario A. Casciaro, 24, who worked with Brian at the grocery, was arrested on nine counts of perjury for lying to a grand jury in February about Brian’s disappearance.

Casciaro, of the 2700 block of Patricia Lane in McHenry, was arrested June 7 and released from police custody after posting $5,000 bail.

The perjury charges stem from “no” answers Casciaro gave when asked about the whereabouts of Carrick’s body and his disappearance, according to court records. Prosecutors said his answers contradict statements from other witnesses.

Casciaro is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 24 on motions filed to dismiss three of the perjury counts. Casciaro and his attorney could not be reached for comment. (update: he was acquitted of these charges, arrested later in 2010 and charged with murder, had two trials, hung jury in 2012, convicted of first-degree murder with intimidation in 2013, serving 26 years in prison, his conviction is on appeal)

“We still have Brian’s picture posted around the station as a reminder to keep [this case] in everyone’s mind,” Rydberg said.