Mario Casciaro is a 2005 graduate of Illinois State University with a bachelor degree in finance and a minor in political science. In 2005, he opened a supermarket in Fox Lake, Illinois with his family. In 2016, less than a year after his release from Menard Correctional Center, Casciaro entered law school at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. He graduated law school in January 2019 with a JD and a Certificate of Advocacy from Loyola University Chicago. During law school, he interned at the Federal Defender’s Program for the Northern District of Illinois; he also clerked for Thomas A. Durkin, a nationally recognized defense attorney specializing in federal terrorism cases. On November 7, 2019, Casciaro was sworn in to the Illinois State Bar.
Casciaro was first arrested in June 2007 and charged in McHenry County with nine counts of perjury related to the disappearance of Carrick. He was acquitted by way of a directed verdict during a bench trial in September 2009. He was subsequently arrested in February 2010 and charged with 6 counts of Felony Murder.
Casciaro is the only person to have ever been charged with Felony Murder Using Intimidation in the history of the United States. Casciaro was also one of 523 people to have ever been brought to trial in a no-body murder case in the history of the United States. In September 2015, the Second District Appellate Court of Illinois unanimously ...
Casciaro went to trial in McHenry County Circuit Court in January 2012. Lamb — whose deal with prosecutors resulted in a reduced prison sentence of six years for possession and distribution of cocaine—testified that Casciaro supplied him and Carrick with marijuana to sell and they returned a portion of the proceeds to Casciaro. Lamb told the jury that Casciaro called him to the store that day to help collect money from Carrick.
Other stock boys present on the day Carrick was last seen included 19-year-old Mario Casciaro, whose father owned the store and who was the unofficial manager of all the stock boys.
The court ordered the charges dismissed. Casciaro was released from prison on bond on September 23, 2015 while the prosecution filed a request with the Illinois Supreme Court for permission to appeal the Appellate Court ruling. On March 30, 2016, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled it would not consider the appeal.
Casciaro went to trial a second time in March 2013 and, based on the same evidence, was convicted on April 2, 2013. He was sentenced to 26 years in prison.
One of the perjury charges was based on Casciaro saying “ no” when he was asked, “Did you say to Alan Lippert that you directed Shane Lamb to scare Brian Carrick and things got out of hand?” Lamb, 18, was also a stock boy at the store and previously had been committed to the juvenile division of the Illinois Department of Corrections at age 14 for attempted murder. He spent most of his high school years there.
He said that he sat alone with McHenry County prosecutor Michael Combs for an hour. “I was following what (Combs) wanted me to say. They just wanted to close the case,” Lamb said.
Lippert, whose testimony had been insufficient to obtain the perjury convictions against Casciaro, testified that he was out drinking with Casciaro in the fall of 2006 and asked Casciaro what had happened.
Mario Casciaro hugs his uncle Lorenzo Vallone at his sister's home in Addison on Sept. 23, 2015, after being released from Menard Correctional Center. Casciaro's 2013 conviction in a 2002 slaying was overturned by an appeals court. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
The prosecutors' office agreed to pay $50,000 to Casciaro, who served about two years of a 26-year prison sentence before his conviction was reversed on appeal. The figure was far less than the millions Casciaro's lawyer sought when the suit was filed, though he has yet to settle his case against Johnsburg police.