Copyright held by The John Cooke Fraud Report. Reprint rights are granted with attribution to The John Cooke Fraud Report with a link to this website.
It had all the twists and turns of a grade B movie. Husband and kids go away for a day, mysterious stranger breaks into house and shoots wife dead.
The plot thickens: Husband tries to collect on life insurance policy he bought two months earlier, Information surfaces that husband had been having an affair and that he’d made inquiries about where to hire a hit man.
The script could realistically progress in two separate directions: yes, the husband is a cold-blooded murderer—or—no, take pity on the poor widower, he’s innocent.
Richard DeCaro, of St. Charles, Missouri, was forced to let a jury dictate the end of the script. But rather than allow the movie to end too soon, the story carries through two separate jury trials.
Initially, DeCaro was tried for murder by the State of Missouri. His alleged hit man accomplice, Daniel Basile, was also tried, but in a separate proceeding. The DeCaro jury did not hear testimony by Basile and was not told that Basile was convicted of murder in the first degree for the killing of DeCaro’s wife, Elizabeth.
DeCaro went scot free. Free, that is, until the feds stepped in and charged him under the federal system. Then it got ugly.
DeCaro’s attorney argued that the second set of charges amount-ed to double jeopardy. The federal attorneys responded by telling the judge that the federal charges of murder for hire, murder conspiracy and mail fraud are distinctly different charges than the single murder charge the state had alleged.
DeCaro lost that round and a federal jury was selected. That jury heard testimony by Basile, and they were allowed to know that Basile had been convicted of first-degree murder in the slaying of DeCaro’s wife. They also heard Basile say DeCaro was going to pay for the hit by turning over the keys to a van, a sport utility vehicle and some electronic equipment.
And then DeCaro lost the next round, perhaps the final chapter of the story, when the jury returned a verdict of guilty.
While there was immediate talk of an appeal, DeCaro was taken to jail to await sentencing.
© Copyright 1996 Alikim Media