State rests murder case without calling key witness

In an surprising turn of events, McHenry County prosecutors rested their case against murder suspect Kenneth Smith Monday without calling a co-defendant who had cut a deal to testify that she served as the accused's getaway driver in a robbery gone bad.

Jennifer McMullan, now serving a 27-year prison term for her part in the slaying of Lakemoor businessman Raul Briseno, is one of two people who could positively place Smith at the murder scene armed with a gun.

But after giving her a deal in which she would go free about 20 years early for cooperating in the prosecution of Smith, prosecutors decided instead to wrap up their case without McMullan's help.

"I have concerns about what's going to be said and I'm not going to call her," Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Michael Combs said.

Instead, jurors deciding Smith's fate spent most of the day listening to the conflicting statements of Susanne DeCicco, a former McHenry resident who has given numerous accounts claiming that her ex-boyfriend, not Smith, killed Briseno.

Briseno, 35, was shot to death March 6, 2001, as he chased two would-be robbers out of his Burrito Express restaurant in McHenry. Authorities believe Smith, 32, of Park City, fired the fatal shot after Briseno captured his accomplice, Justin Houghtaling, in the restaurant parking lot and tried to drag him back into the business.

Houghtaling, who in 2001 confessed and cut a deal to get the minimum 20-year sentence in exchange for testimony against Smith, took to the witness stand last week and recanted his prior incriminating statements.

DeCicco did the same Monday, telling jurors she had been lying for years when she told two police agencies, her mother, her sister and several friends that a former boyfriend and a cousin were responsible for Briseno's slaying.

"I have no clue," she said when asked why she made up the claims. "I was mad at (the ex-boyfriend); we had an argument."

As for McMullan, her lack of testimony likely will raise questions as to whether she will get the early release her deal calls for. Her attorney, Steven Schwarzbach, said he expects prosecutors to live up to their end of the deal, even if they didn't ask McMullan to testify.

"The deal is contingent on her cooperating and testifying if she is called as a witness," Schwarzbach said. "She fully cooperated with them and did everything they asked."

Defense lawyers are scheduled to continue presenting their case today with a litany of witnesses expected to testify about DeCicco's past accounts of the murder. Among the possible witnesses are the two men she has claimed were the real killers.