Hanover Park man guilty of 2008 murder
After nearly three hours, jurors deliberating the fate of Matthew Zucco, charged with first-degree murder in the September 2008 shooting death of 19-year-old Joseph Ziegler, delivered a split verdict that left Ziegler's father with mixed emotions.
The jury found Zucco, 23, guilty of first-degree murder, but found him not guilty of discharging a firearm to commit the crime. Zucco, of Hanover Park, maintained he shot the Schaumburg High School graduate after Ziegler drew a gun on him and a struggle ensued, resulting in Zucco getting hit in the chest with bullet fragments.
Prosecutors rejected Zucco's version. They say Zucco put Ziegler in a headlock and shot him just above the right ear with a .38-caliber, snub-nosed revolver during an attempted armed robbery Zucco committed with his former friend and onetime co-defendant, Clinton Johnson, 25.
Joseph's father, Jeffrey Ziegler, hoped for guilty verdicts on both counts, thus ensuring a minimum 45-year prison sentence. The split verdict means Zucco faces between 20 and 60 years at sentencing which could take place on May 30, his next court date. While disappointed, Jeffrey Ziegler expressed satisfaction that Zucco must complete 100 percent of his sentence (less the two years he has spent in Cook County jail since his arrest) before he is released.
Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Mike Andre painted a grim and graphic picture during Friday's closing arguments, of Jeffrey Ziegler finding his "baby boy lying in a pool of blood ... with his brains blown out" in the basement bedroom of the family's Hoffman Estates' home.
Andre rejected Zucco's "ridiculous story" that he went to the home that day with Johnson, a former Marine from Streamwood, to purchase marijuana from Ziegler. He referenced testimony from Johnson, who admitted he devised the plan to rob Ziegler, who prosecutors acknowledged made money selling pot and had more than $12,000 cash in a safe in his room.
"That combination of cannabis and cash got him killed," Andre said.
Johnson was initially charged with first-degree murder along with Zucco, but he agreed to testify against him and plead guilty to the lesser attempted armed robbery charge, in exchange for a 15-year sentence. Under the terms of the agreement, Johnson could be released after serving 50 percent of his sentence.
It doesn't matter whether Zucco intended to shoot Ziegler, Andre said, explaining that the felony murder charge is based on the attempted armed robbery. Under the law, "if you commit these violent criminal acts and someone dies during the course of those acts, you are responsible for murder," Andre said.
Johnson testified that while he was looking for items to steal, he heard a single gunshot from the basement, after which he encountered Zucco ascending the stairs, clutching his bleeding chest and saying, "I shot Joey." Johnson said they wiped away their fingerprints and fled, stopping only for Johnson to drop the gun down a sewer near the Ziegler home. A short time later, Johnson said, he put remaining .38-caliber cartridges he had at his home into a sock and threw it down a sewer near his home.
After more than 18 months, authorities received a tip following the 2010 suburban drug sweep dubbed "Dial-A-Rock" that led them to Zucco and Johnson, who later told them where he tossed the weapon and ammunition. Hoffman Estates police recovered both the sock and the gun, which contained five live rounds and one spent round, although a firearms expert could not testify conclusively that the bullet fragments recovered from Ziegler's body were fired from the recovered gun.
Defense attorney Thomas Glasgow spent a good portion of his closing argument attacking the credibility of key prosecution witnesses, friends of Zucco who were charged with other crimes and were allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges in exchange for testifying against him. He reserved his greatest disdain for Johnson and his "bought and paid for offer."
"Doubt the man (Johnson) who has every reason in the world to lie to you," Glasgow said. "He testified against Matt to save his own skin."
Even as he worked out a plea deal with prosecutors, Johnson accepted help from Zucco's mother, who put money into his jail commissary account and helped his mother save her home.
"That's the kind of guy he is," said Glasgow, who contrasted him with Zucco, a then 19-year-old who "just went to buy some weed and didn't know what to do when that drug deal went bad."
Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Mike Clarke defended his witnesses, saying "sometimes we need the help of criminals to bring other criminals to justice."
Prosecutors and police don't get to select their witnesses, said Clarke. They can't order up perfect witnesses from Central Casting.
"You know who gets to pick witnesses in a murder case? The defendant," said Clarke. "He chooses who he commits crimes with."