Murder cases laid out for mob jury
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
4:44 PM CDT, September 11, 2007
Jurors in the Family Secrets mob conspiracy trial began a second round of deliberations late this afternoon to decide if four Outfit figures are guilty of 18 murders at the heart of the prosecution, but they recessed until tomorrow after conferring privately for less than half an hour.
The deliberations are scheduled to resume tomorrow.
For much of Tuesday, jurors heard arguments from the prosecution and defense about the murders.
The arguments come a day after the jury convicted the four Outfit figures—Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr., James Marcello and Paul "the Indian" Schiro—as well as former Chicago police officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle of racketeering conspiracy. Doyle was not charged with murder.
In delivering the prosecution argument, Assistant U.S. Atty. Mitchell Mars asked jurors to hold the defendants accountable for the mob hits.
"Murder is a staple of the Outfit," he said. "It is a tool."
Lawyers for two of the defendants asked jurors to find their clients not guilty. In delivering the prosecution argument, Mars walked jurors through each homicide, reminding them of the evidence that implicated the four Outfit figures.
Lombardo killed federal witness Daniel Seifert, he said."He murdered Daniel Seifert in front of his wife and son so he could walk away from a federal prosecution," he said.
Calabrese is to blame for 13 murders, he said, asking jurors to remember how Calabrese detailed what he knew about the killings in prison recordings made by his son. Among them was the killing of Hinsdale trucking executive Michael Cagnoni, which Mars called "shockingly evil."
Cagnoni was killed in a car bombing on the Tri-State Tollway.
As Mars described what happened, his voice cracked. He recalled how Cagnoni's wife and son used the bomb-rigged car the morning of the bombing but did not drive within range of a transmitter that would have set off the device."But for pure happenstance, it may well have been Mrs. Cagnoni and her son who were blown to pieces," he said. Marcello killed three people, Las Vegas mob chieftain Anthony Spilotro and his brother, Michael, Mars said..
The brothers, lured to their deaths by Marcello, were shown no mercy, the prosecutor said.
"It was 12 men or more, jumping two brothers who were going to be killed, whatever happened," he said.
Schiro was responsible for the killing of Emil Vaci in Arizona, Mars said. At first, he was to lure the victims but ended up acting as a lookout.
Jurors then heard from lawyers for Marcello and Lombardo, who argued that the government had not proven its case. Marcello's lawyer, Thomas Breen, said the government's key witness, Nicholas Calabrese, cannot be trusted.
"You don't do any favors for these families by convicting somebody that doesn't close the case," Breen said of the relatives of the murder victims.
Nicholas Calabrese had testified that the Spilotro brothers were strangled but physical evidence shows they were beaten to death, Breen said.
He said it also made no sense that the men would be killed in Bensenville, as Calabrese said, and then driven to Indiana and dumped in a cornfield.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Breen said in a mocking tone. "I thought your whole point was they're organized–they did this and they did that."
"And now they're just stupid criminals?"
Lombardo's attorney, Rick Halprin, urged the jury to re-read its notes from the trial and see that Seifert could have been killed because he could have put mob-connected businessman Irwin Weiner behind bars.
Lombardo had an alibi that went unchallenged, Halprin said, adding that Lombardo was not at the murder scene.
Lombardo had testified that he was reporting a stolen wallet to police when Seifert was gunned down.
"If he wasn't there, it doesn't matter if he was eating green cheese on the moon," Halprin told jurors.
jcoen@tribune.com
