Jury deliberates in fatal beating trial
It was more than seven years ago that John E. Conrad gave his mother a goodbye kiss and walked out the door, never to be seen alive by his family again.
A DuPage County jury began deliberating late Wednesday after a five-week trial in the 31-year-old Schaumburg man's violent death. The deliberations continue this morning.
Prosecutors allege Luigi P. Adamo killed Conrad with a tire iron in a northwest DuPage County forest preserve, robbed him of $8 and later bragged about it.
Adamo, 26, formerly of Wayne, did not testify in either trial. He is free on a $500,000 bond.
His first trial ended May 30 when DuPage Circuit Judge George Bakalis was forced to declare a hung jury after the foreman said further deliberations would be futile. The panel deliberated 27 hours during three days.
A couple walking through Pratt's Wayne Woods, off Munger Road, near Bartlett, discovered the brutalized remains Oct. 28, 2000.
The murder remained unsolved for three years until a codefendant'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 prove 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 allege 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.
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 points 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 within one mile of where the body was found.
Prosecutors lack a murder weapon or a concrete confession. Adamo's fingerprints, though, were found on the spare tire in Ewing's trunk, and the tire iron was missing -- which is consistent with the prosecution's witnesses.