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Trial date set for man charged with murder in Hoffman Estates case

From the day 3½ years ago that he found his son Joseph's lifeless body in the basement of the family's Hoffman Estates home, Jeff Ziegler has waited anxiously for justice.

He only has to wait a little longer for his day in court now that Cook County Judge Kay Hanlon has set a trial date of April 16 for Matthew Zucco, 22, charged with first-degree murder in the 2008 shooting death of 19-year-old Joseph Ziegler.

The delay has frustrated Jeff Ziegler.

“In my opinion, the system moves like a snail, nothing like TV's ‘Law & Order,'” said Jeff Ziegler. “The average person has no clue what it takes to get these cases resolved.”

It didn't help that the case appeared to have gone cold, although police said it never did. But that changed in April 2010 when an extensive suburban drug investigation dubbed “Dial-A-Rock” resulted in a tipster implicating Zucco, of Hanover Park, and co-defendant Clinton Johnson, of Streamwood.

Authorities say Zucco and Johnson entered the Ziegler home about 9 a.m. on Sept. 4, 2008, intending to rob Joseph but shot him instead. Zucco later fled to Wisconsin where he admitted his involvement to several people, prosecutors said during the co-defendants' bond hearings nearly two years ago.

Johnson, 25, will be tried separately. He next appears in court on March 16.

Zucco's attorney says his client is anxious to get the trial going.

“Mr. Zucco has had this trial hanging over his head since the inception of the case,” said defense attorney Thomas Glasgow. “He's looking forward to having the opportunity to have his side of this case heard.”

If convicted, Zucco faces a minimum of 45 years in prison.

Ziegler would prefer that whoever is convicted of his son's death be sentenced to a lengthy term, one that extends beyond Ziegler and his daughter's lifetime.

Right now, though, he's focused on the trial.

“The thing I'm most anxious to hear is a guilty verdict,” Ziegler said.

Matthew Zucco
Clinton Johnson
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