Jury sequestered in Villa Park murder case
A tired DuPage County jury was sequestered late Monday after failing to reach an immediate verdict in the trial of a woman accused of killing her longtime partner in Villa Park.
Judge John Kinsella recessed jurors about 9 p.m. after seven hours of deliberations. Deputies escorted the panel of six men and six women to an area hotel for the night. They will continue deliberations Tuesday morning.
Nicole Abusharif, 28, is accused of suffocating 32-year-old Becky Klein March 15, 2007 in what prosecutors called a cold, calculated and premeditated plan so she could start over with a new lover and collect $400,000 in life insurance.
Police investigating Klein's disappearance discovered her body two days later in the trunk of Abusharif's 1966 Ford Mustang in the detached garage of their home on Harvard Avenue.
A plastic garbage bag was taped around Klein's head. Her hands and feet were bound with duct tape. Forensic experts testified they found Abusharif's finger and palm prints on the duct tape and garbage bag, as well as her DNA on bandannas used to gag and blindfold Klein.
Prosecutors Tim Diamond and Joseph Ruggiero said Abusharif killed Klein to pursue a romantic relationship with the other woman, Rose Sodaro, and also to collect the insurance money. They noted Abusharif profited in eight earlier insurance claims ranging from auto accidents to workers' compensation.
The prosecutors argued forensic evidence, motive, the timeline, phone records and the defendant's own words were proof of her overwhelming guilt.
"You know how you can tell when (Abusharif) is lying?" Ruggiero said in his closing argument. "It's when she opens her mouth. Everything she says is a lie."
The defense team, Bob Parchem and Dennis Sopata, countered it would have been physically impossible for Abusharif, who had no bruises or other visible marks, to overpower Klein and load her body into a trunk. They questioned the timeline and said it isn't surprising that Abusharif's fingerprints were found since the couple was in the midst of repacking holiday decorations.
The defense noted it was Abusharif who called 911 to report Klein's disappearance.
"If she's so slick, why didn't she conceive a better plan?" Parchem said. "It's the worst premeditated plan of murder ever conceived."
He added: "It's not my job to tell you who did this. It's my job to say, 'Did they prove this little girl (pointing at Abusharif) is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt?' I submit to you they did not."
The night of the murder, Sodaro stayed with Abusharif in the Villa Park house after the two partied and bowled together in the south suburbs. The 22-year-old Sodaro testified earlier in the trial that Abusharif gave her a key to the Mustang that night as a present. Sodaro said Abusharif led her to believe Klein was just a roommate, not a lover.
Abusharif took the witness stand in her defense. The defendant said she loved Klein, with whom she had an eight-year relationship. She said they had an open relationship and that Klein didn't object to Sodaro as long as certain rules were followed.
The defendant admitted repeatedly lying to police, family and friends about the fact she spent that night with Sodaro but said she did so only to avoid having to expose intimate details about her sex life.
Abusharif is free on a $1 million bond. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.