Second trial ends in murder conviction
After his son's murder went unsolved, Jack Conrad said he feared going to his grave without getting justice.
It took seven years, but the ailing Schaumburg man's fears were put to rest.
A jury convicted Luigi P. Adamo Thursday of first-degree murder for the fatal beating of John E. Conrad in late October 2000 in a DuPage County forest preserve.
It was the defendant's second trial. Adamo, 26, formerly of Wayne, did not testify in either trial. His first trial ended May 30 when DuPage Circuit Judge George Bakalis declared a hung jury after 27 hours of fruitless deliberations.
This time, jurors reached a unanimous verdict in about seven hours over two days. Adamo was taken into custody to await sentencing. He was free on a $500,000 bond.
His supportive family, who hired a top-notch defense team to prove his innocence, wept as Adamo was led off.
On the other side of the courtroom, Claudia Hornback also became emotional. Her parents, Jack and June Conrad, were too ill to attend. Hornback fulfilled a promise she made to her slain little brother. She attended nearly every court hearing over several years in his memory. She also helped found a crime-victim support group.
A couple walking through Pratt's Wayne Woods, off Munger Road near Bartlett, discovered her brother's remains in late October 2000. At the time, news reports called Conrad a homeless man.
But the struggling alcoholic always had a home with his family when he was sober.
His murder remained unsolved for three years until a co-defendant's ex-girlfriend convinced him July 17, 2003, to go to police. Jason S. Reardon, 24, was charged with murder, too. But in a plea deal, he is serving a 19-year term for armed robbery.
The prosecution team - David Bayer, Paul Marchese and Thomas O'Connor - said their witnesses, physical evidence and the defendant's statements proved his guilt.
Reardon and the ex-girlfriend, Sarah Haggard, testified in both trials. Reardon also secretly recorded phone calls with Adamo. The jury listened to those recordings. Adamo did not confess, but he made incriminating statements, such as if police had evidence, they'd both be in custody.
Prosecutors said Conrad approached Adamo, Reardon and a third friend, Eric Ewing, in late October 2000 outside a restaurant wanting a ride. Reardon said he watched Adamo beat Conrad with the tire iron after Ewing dropped them at the forest preserve. Reardon said Adamo urged him to help kill Conrad as part of a mob initiation.
The defense team - Richard Beuke, Jack Donahue and Michelle Moore - painted Haggard, Reardon and Ewing as liars and noted their inconsistencies. They criticized the police probe and questioned why all the evidence wasn't tested for forensics.
The defense pointed to another man as the murderer. That man tearfully denied killing Conrad. He is a former friend who was convicted of using Conrad's Public Aid card at a store one mile of where the body was found.
Prosecutors lacked a murder weapon or a confession. Adamo's fingerprints, though, were found on the spare tire in Ewing's trunk, and the tire iron was missing.