Targeting the words of a killer
Defense focuses on key witness as it begins closing arguments
By Jeff Coen | Tribune staff reporter
August 29, 2007
At times almost whispering to jurors and at other moments bellowing near the top of their lungs, defense lawyers at the Family Secrets trial on Tuesday began what promises to be a relentless assault on the character of the government's star witness.
The attorneys described Nicholas Calabrese as a mob serial killer desperate to save his own life by taking down the five defendants in the case. His testimony on many of the 18 murders at the heart of the prosecution's case simply can't be trusted, the defense said.
Attorney Marc Martin, representing reputed mob boss James Marcello, said Calabrese has spent his adult life "lying, cheating, conniving, committing crimes and getting away with it."
Martin attacked Calabrese's weeklong testimony last month by concentrating on the most infamous of the murders, the 1986 slayings of Anthony and Michael Spilotro. Calabrese had testified that Marcello drove him and an associate to the murder scene at a residence in suburban Bensenville.
But none of Calabrese's testimony about how the murders unfolded made sense, Martin argued. It would be reasonable for jurors to infer that Calabrese simply made up his account in order to sweeten his own deal by solving for prosecutors one of Chicago's greatest mob murder mysteries, he said. Otherwise, Calabrese was only giving up his brother, defendant Frank Calabrese Sr., "and a bunch of dead guys," Martin said.
Each of the five defendants, who have often seemed distracted during the trial while talking to lawyers or sorting through papers, watched intently as Martin delivered the first of the defense's closing arguments.
Nicholas Calabrese had testified that the Spilotros were lured to the house by a promise of mob promotions and were attacked in a basement. But, Martin pointed out, he also testified that those who greeted the brothers wore gloves the entire time.
The gloves would have given the plot away, Martin argued. He contended that Calabrese had been tripped up on small details.
"[The brothers] would've been running for the back door. Michael would have been going for his gun," Martin said.
Calabrese also was contradicted by physical evidence in the case, Martin said. Calabrese had said at least one of the brothers was strangled and that after the murders, he wiped up a spot of blood from the floor with a tissue.
But a forensic pathologist testified that the most likely cause of death was massive blunt-force trauma and that both victims essentially drowned in their own blood, Martin said.
And Marcello's defense pointed to Calabrese's past contention that Ernest Rocco Infelice participated in the murders. Government wiretaps showed Infelice was on the phone at home in the afternoon and evening on the day the brothers were killed.
Rick Halprin, the lawyer for defendant Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, also took a swipe at Calabrese for his testimony that mobster John Fecarotta confided to him that Lombardo was involved in the killing of federal witness Daniel Seifert. Calabrese, who has admitted his own guilt in 14 of the murders, later fatally shot Fecarotta in a mob dispute.
"Nobody can be indicted or prosecuted for repeating a rumor, especially if you're the person who killed him," Halprin said.
But Halprin conceded that his own client wasn't completely honest from the witness stand earlier this month in testimony that packed the courtroom at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.
"He doesn't trust you," Halprin said, calling his client a worried 78-year-old man. "He's frightened to death of you. He doesn't believe any 12 of you will give him a fair shake."
Some of the testimony that was off the mark included Lombardo's refusal to identify men such as Joseph "Doves" Aiuppa as mob bosses, the attorney said.
Halprin said that's because of Lombardo's past, which includes two major convictions, one in a celebrated case of mob-related casino skimming. The attorney has argued that Lombardo merely is a businessman whose mob associations have gotten him in trouble.
Halprin said the case against his client actually is nearly all "rumors, half-assed suspicion and innuendo," except for transcripts of recorded conversations from 1979 that Lombardo had with corrupt insurance executive Allen Dorfman and a St. Louis lawyer who owed Dorfman money.
In a recording played repeatedly by the government, Lombardo can he heard promising the 72-year-old lawyer that he won't reach 73 unless he pays Dorfman.
In his testimony, Lombardo said he was just acting "like James Cagney" to scare the attorney and help Dorfman. That part of Lombardo's testimony was truthful, Halprin said, calling Lombardo a "rent-a-mobster."
Halprin yelled that it was, "Dead wrong!" to even suggest that the conversation dealt with mob business. The money involved pension fund loans, he said.
It's proven that Lombardo was not a well-known mob figure, Halprin contended, because he can be heard on the tape telling the lawyer, "You don't know me." And while other victims in the Family Secrets case faced violence for hundreds of dollars, the lawyer was allowed to walk out of Dorfman's office owing millions, "and he doesn't even get a touch on the cheek," Halprin said.
Family members of some of the victims were unhappy with attacks on them by the defense. The Spilotros' brother, Patrick, who testified that Lombardo once told him he had the power to stop the killings, was painted as a man with an obsessive agenda who went overboard trying to help authorities solve the murders.
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jcoen@tribune.com
