Mario Casciaro is currently occupied with helping operate the family grocery business in Fox Lake, while tentatively preparing to enter law school next year. (Photo by Gregory Harutunian/for Chronicle Media)

The McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office has announced that it will request the Illinois Supreme Court to review the McHenry County appellate court decision, which overturned the murder conviction of Mario Casciaro in the 2002 apparent death of Brian Carrick.

The lower court findings cited a lack of evidence, and a questionable prosecution witness in Shane Lamb.

“This office is going to file for a case review to the Illinois Supreme Court, at some point in the next few weeks, before the Nov. 20 statutory deadline,” said Michael Combs, the State’s Attorney’s Criminal Division Chief Michael Combs. “Once the justices receive the files, it could take up to several months for a determination.”

Combs, the lead attorney for the state, in the second jury trial resulting in a conviction, refused to speculate as to the potential outcome of the high court review.

The 2nd District Appellate Court overturned the conviction of Mario Casciaro involving the disappearance of 17-year old Brian Carrick, in a Sept. 17 ruling. Casciaro, 32, was handed a 26-year sentence for murder in April 2013, although Carrick’s body has never been found. In her ruling, Appellate Court Justice Kathryn Zenoff cited, “… evidence so lacking and improbable that the state failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Since his release, Casciaro has been busy renewing relationships with family and friends, while re-acclimating himself to the family’s grocery business, Val’s Fresh Market, in Fox Lake. He is also making plans to enter law school next year.

“I’m hopeful and confident that the Illinois Supreme Court will toss out the requested review,” said Casciaro. “I’m re-orienting myself to the grocery business, and recently took the LSAT exam, as a precursor to entering law school, and did pretty well. It’s encouraging to look forward to going to school, which will be on a full-time basis, probably starting in Aug. 2016, but that isn’t a firm date.”

“It’s been a difficult period, especially on my family,” he said. “I was in a concrete box, when the call came about the appellate court decision and it didn’t register. It’s not until you are actually outside (prison walls), and smelling fresh air, that you realize … it is true.”

Carrick disappeared in December 2002, last seen entering the original Val’s Foods in Johnsburg, owned by Casciaro’s parents and the Di Marco family, where he was a manager, and Lamb also worked. The latter’s trial statements implicated Casciaro, as having called him to “talk” to Carrick about a $500 debt from marijuana sales. Lamb admitted hitting Carrick, which caused his death, and Casciaro later allegedly removed the body.

Despite several key pieces of evidence having disappeared, and the death of another individual, Robert Render, who may have been involved with the death and disappearance, the jury found Casiaro guilty of Carrick’s murder, with sentencing administered by McHenry County judge Sharon Prather.   

Lamb recanted his testimony earlier this year, saying that McHenry County prosecutors had coerced his statements, supplied immunity from the murder, and offered assistance in an earlier drug conviction. The recanting took place after Lamb was arrested with another individual in a residential burglary involving firearms taken from a safe.

In its opinion, the appellate court findings stated, “… the physical evidence is irreconcilable with Lamb’s testimony that nothing occurred in the hallway outside the cooler. Each time Lamb told the story of how he got Carrick into the cooler (where he was allegedly killed), he changed and embellished it to make his role appear more threatening, immediately after receiving immunity.”

The panel concluded, “Prosecutors lacked evidence to hold Casciaro criminally responsible through intimidation for Carrick’s death.”

Casciaro had previously been cleared by a McHenry County Grand Jury for perjury in the disappearance of Carrick, and an initial murder trial ended with an 11-1 jury, and acquittal on technical terms. He had been serving his sentence at the Menard Correctional Center in Lincoln.

His brother, Eugene Casciaro, reflected the emotions felt by all of the Casciaro family members. “We’re simply filled with joy to have him back,” he said. “This has been stressful for the family, and having to run the business without him. Now, he can help us … It’s just good to see him here, and to know he’s with us again.”

–Supreme Court review sought for Casciaro case–