Lake Co. man linked to missing teen pleads guilty to drug charge

A Lake County man reportedly ready to testify against others in connection with the 2002 disappearance and suspected murder of a Johnsburg teen pleaded guilty to an unrelated drug charge Tuesday with no mention of an immunity deal sources say he recently struck with prosecutors.

Shane A. Lamb, 25, of Lake Bluff, was sentenced to six years in prison after admitting to an unlawful possession of cocaine charge stemming from a 2008 drug investigation in Spring Grove.

When prompted by the judge that accepted the plea deal, Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Michael Combs said there were no other conditions to the plea agreement other than the prosecutor's office's dismissal of related drug charges and the 6-year term.

State's Attorney Louis Bianchi later said he could not address reports that Lamb, linked both in court documents and trial testimony to the 2002 disappearance of Brian Carrick, has agreed to testify against others involved in that matter.

"We're still pursuing the death investigation of Brian Carrick," Bianchi said.

Carrick, then 17, vanished Dec. 20, 2002, from Val's Foods, a Johnsburg grocery store where he worked. Police said they found traces of his blood and other indications of a struggle inside the business, but no other sign of the high school student.

Multiple sources familiar with the investigation said last week that Lamb recently reached a deal with county prosecutors in which he would receive immunity for his role in the killing in exchange for his testimony against at least one other suspect.

Lamb publicly was connected to the case in 2007 when Carrick's former supervisor at Val's, Mario A. Casciaro, 26, of McHenry, was indicted on perjury charges alleging he lied to a grand jury investigating what happened to Carrick.

During a trial last year, former friend Alan Lippert testified that Casciaro admitted he and Lamb played a part in the disappearance.

"I asked him, 'Is it true that you told (Lamb) to kill Brian?'" Lippert testified. "He said it wasn't even like that. He said that Brian owed him money and he told (Lamb) to scare him and that something happened, it got out of hand and there was an accident."

Casciaro denied ever making those statements and was found not guilty.

Lamb, who has been in the McHenry County jail since his April arrest on the drug charges, could be free in less than two years with his time already served and likely day-for-day credit for good behavior while in prison.