Daniel Seifert
Federal prosecutor Mitchell Mars, in a searing final argument for the government, laid out the evidence against Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo in the most comprehensive fashion to date concering his alleged role in the 1974 murder of Bensenville businessman Daniel Seifert.
Seifert was shotgunned just yards from his wife and 4-year-old son at his fiberglass factory in Bensenville.
Here's the government's evidence:
Lombardo had the best motive to kill Seifert. Former federal prosecutor Matt Lydon testified at trial that Seifert was the only witness to link Lombardo to a 1974 Teamster pension fund fraud case. When Seifert died, so did the case against Lombardo. Mars argued that if Lombardo had been convicted in the 1974 case, his access to the millions of dollars in Teamster pension fund money would have been gone too.
"He loses his grip on the golden goose," Mars told jurors.
Emma Seifert, Daniel's widow, testified that Lombardo was at Seifert's business the week before Seifert was slain, casing out the place.
Ronald Seifert, Daniel's brother, testified that Lombardo called him before his brother's death and warned him to straighten his brother out.
The title application for one of the work cars used in the Seifert murder has Lombardo's fingerprint on it. The application lists a fake business, but the address for the business is real. It corresponds to a business owned by a friend of Lombardo's.
A police scanner was found in the work car.
Lombardo, in his own testimony, admitted signing the fake name to Savard to some of the purchases he made at a CB store where was the scanner was bought. The name Savard was also signed on the purchase form for the recovered police scanner, but Lombardo testified it wasn't his signature.
Lombardo said he was buying the scanners for his friend and boss, businessman Irwin Weiner, who used the scanners for the tow trucks he owned. Lombardo said Weiner told him to use the name Savard because Weiner was a fan of some hockey players with that last name. The prosecutor dubbed that "a lame story."
The last name Savard also happened to be the maiden name of a man in Lombardo's crew who allegedly took part in the murder, Frank "The German" Schweihs, the prosecutor pointed out.
One employee at the CB store where the scanner was bought identified Lombardo as the man who purchased it. Another witness said Lombardo was in the store buying items all the time. With him at times were mobsters James LaPietra, Frank Schweihs and John Fecarotta.
Trial testimony indicated those three men were also involved in the Seifert hit.
One woman who worked in the same industrial park where Seifert's fiberglass business was located said she saw Fecarotta and one of the cars involved in the hit in the industrial park a week before Seifert was killed.
Outfit killer Nicholas Calabrese, who was a star government witness, said Fecarotta told him that Fecarotta, James LaPietra, Schweihs, Lombardo, Joseph Hansen and Tony Spilotro took part in the Seifert slaying, which jibes nicely with the testimony from the CB store employee and the female employee in the industrial park.
Lombardo's attorney, Rick Halprin, cleverly attacked Nicholas Calabrese's account by questioning why Fecarotta, a made man, would confess this to Calabrese, who wasn't made at the time, and give him information that could put Fecarotta in prison forever.
Mars, the prosecutor, pointed out, though, that Calabrese and Fecarotta had already killed two men together before Fecarotta brought up the story, so it wasn't exactly as if the men hadn't shared a criminal experience or two.
Another witness brought up Tony Spilotro's participation in the murder. A woman on her way to work noted that a car - later identified as one of the cars used in the slaying - was being driven frantically behind her. She figured the men had just robbed a bank. In fact, they were fleeing from the Seifert slaying. At the time she talked to the FBI and said the man in the passenger seat looked like Spilotro.
Spilotro had reason to get rid of Seifert too because he was charged in the Teamster pension fund case, along with Lombardo.
One work car used in the murder was purchased at Southwestern Dodge, whose owner at the time was a friend of Lombardo's, according to court testimony. The other work car was already tied to Lombardo through the fingerprint mentioned above.
Another trial witness, Alva Johnson Rodgers, testified he saw Lombardo the day after the Seifert murder at a golf driving range, and Lombardo was laughing about Seifert's death and said words to the effect that the S.O.B. won't be testifying against anyone now.
Lombardo has an alibi. He testified he was busy reporting that his wallet had been stolen from his car the morning of the murder.
Mars pounced on that, noting the FBI visited Lombardo at home the very night of the day Seifert was killed. Lombardo was reading about the case in the newspaper and complained his name was linked to Seifert's death.
Despite Lombardo saying he had a rock solid alibi, he mentioned not one word of it to the FBI agents when they visited him, Mars noted.
Thanks for the detailed blog entries, a great supplement to what's in the paper.
Question about the withdrawal defense: if the jury finds that he withdrew from the Outfit, but believes that he was involved in the Seifert murder, can they still convict on the RICO charge?
STEVE WARMBIR RESPONDS: If the jury finds he withdrew, they cannot convict him on the RICO charge, under the law, even if they believe he committed the Seifert murder.
He's not technically not charged with murder. The Seifert murder is one of the predicate acts that make up the racketeering conspiracy charge that Lombardo faces.
It's a fine distinction, but one that could make all the difference in the world to Lombardo.
Any more evidence found at the scene that did not link anyone? I always heard they found a ski mask.
STEVE WARMBIR RESPONDS: There was no physical evidence from the scene that linked back to Lombardo.
I believe last year, before Lombardo went into hiding, a DNA sample had been taken under warrant.
It seems the prosecution did not bring up any DNA evidence in this trial.
Did the defense mention the DNA sample with a claim that the absence of a DNA connection should help to exhonerate?
STEVE WARMBIR RESPONDS: It was mentioned that there was no DNA evidence linking Lombardo to the crime scene.
But it's not as if there were no physical evidence linking him to the mob hit. His fingerprint was found on the title application for one of the cars used in the murder.