Testimony begins for man accused of killing Hoffman Estates teen
“Secrets are only secrets if you keep them to yourself,” said Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Clarke during opening arguments Wednesday in the trial of Matthew Zucco, charged with the 2008 slaying of 19-year-old Joseph Ziegler in the basement of his family’s Hoffman Estates home.
Zucco’s secret was safe for more than 18 months, Clarke said, until an expansive 2010 suburban drug investigation dubbed “Dial-A-Rock” yielded a tip that led police to Zucco, of Hanover Park, and co-defendant Clinton Johnson, 25, of Streamwood.
Both initially were charged with first-degree murder. But last fall, Johnson — who was diagnosed with cancer last year — agreed to plead guilty to attempted armed robbery and testify against his former friend in exchange for a 15-year sentence, of which he must serve 50 percent before he is eligible for parole.
A first-degree murder conviction carries a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison. Parole is not an option.
Clarke maintained to jurors it was 23-year-old Zucco who “was responsible for chasing (Ziegler) downstairs and blowing his life away with the pull of a trigger.”
Ziegler, a Schaumburg High School graduate and Harper College student, wasn’t perfect, Clarke said.
He sold marijuana, and that made him a target because “where there’s marijuana, there’s money,” said Clarke, describing robbery as the reason Zucco and Johnson went to Ziegler’s home the morning of Sept. 4, 2008, armed with a .38-caliber revolver.
After the murder, the men left in a car driven by another man, threw the gun and bullets down a sewer and burned Zucco’s clothes at Johnson’s home, prosecutors said.
Defense attorney William Beattie rejected prosecutors’ theory.
“This isn’t a murder. This isn’t a robbery. This isn’t a burglary. All Matt Zucco wanted to do was buy a bag of weed,” Beattie said in his opening statement, pointing out that no money or valuables were taken from the home. “All he got was a nightmare not of his own making.”
Johnson set up the transaction that turned into a dispute and then a struggle for a gun during which Ziegler was fatally wounded, Beattie said, saying it was Johnson who told Zucco to clean up the scene and it was Johnson who disposed of the weapon and soiled clothes.
And it was Johnson who has a “bought and paid for offer” that will see him released from prison in a little more than five years, Beattie said.
Testifying before the jury, Johnson, a Hoffman Estates High School graduate who played linebacker on the football team and served in the Marine Corps for about 14 months prior to his arrest, said financial problems prompted him to discuss with Zucco a plan to rob Ziegler, whom Johnson had known for a couple of years.
“We knew he dealt drugs ... and a drug dealer can’t call the cops,” said Johnson, who admitted owning a 9 mm gun but testified he didn’t bring the weapon with him because “you wouldn’t bring a firearm registered in your name to rob somebody.”
Zucco had a .38-caliber snub-nosed revolver when the two men entered the Ziegler home through an unlocked sliding door after they saw a figure moving around inside, Johnson said. He testified that he went upstairs to see if anyone else was home and check the bedrooms for property he could take, while Zucco headed to the basement. Johnson further testified that he heard a single gunshot and saw Zucco ascend the basement steps clutching his chest, which was blood-soaked, and saying, “Joey’s dead. I shot him.”
The two men then wiped down everything they touched and ran back to a waiting car driven by a friend, Johnson said. Johnson said Zucco told him that during the struggle, Zucco was shot in the chest and he asked Johnson to pull the bullet out, which Johnson did not do.
Johnson testified that he and another man drove Zucco to Wisconsin later that day.
Johnson admitted that his July 2011 cancer diagnosis and a feeling the case wasn’t going his way prompted him to cooperate with prosecutors.
“I didn’t see a positive outcome,” said Johnson, who characterized his relationship with Zucco and his family as close. “I wasn’t going to give up my life for something I didn’t do.”
Under cross examination by defense attorney Thomas Glasgow, Johnson admitted writing a letter to Zucco’s mother, who he testified put money into his commissary account at Cook County jail and had helped support his mother when she was about to lose her house.
He admitted writing in the letter that testifying against Zucco went against everything he believed in, but “I’ve got to do what’s best for me,” he said.
Testimony continues today in Rolling Meadows.