{"id":242670,"date":"2010-01-28T15:29:42","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T20:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chicagopressrelease.com\/?p=14680"},"modified":"2010-01-28T15:29:42","modified_gmt":"2010-01-28T20:29:42","slug":"jury-deliberating-teen%e2%80%99s-fate-over-huntley-bank-holdup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/242670","title":{"rendered":"Jury deliberating teen\u2019s fate over Huntley bank holdup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A McHenry County jury is deliberating the fate of a 19-year-old DeKalb County man charged with robbing a Huntley bank at gunpoint, after his trial came to an abrupt end this morning without him taking the witness stand as his attorney promised.<\/p>\n

In fact, the defense for Matthew G. Reno, of Hinckley, chose not to put on a case at all, opting instead to focus their efforts on a closing argument that attempted to discredit the prosecution’s evidence and particularly its key witness, co-defendant Justin Fasel. <\/span><\/p>\n

Fasel, 19, of Big Rock, testified earlier this week that he served as Reno’s getaway driver when he robbed Castle Bank, 11700 Route 47, on March 10, 2008, making way with more than $13,000.<\/p>\n

In exchange for testifying against Reno – who he described as his “very good friend” – Fasel got a deal from prosecutors that will allow him to admit to a reduced charge for his role in the holdup, prevent him from being charged in at least one other bank robbery he’s admitted to and receive a four-month stay in a prison boot camp rather than at least six years behind bars.<\/p>\n

Reno attorney Kathleen Colton in her closing argument labeled Fasel a “lying, drug-dealing, pot-smoking bank robber” who pulled the stickup himself and blamed Reno when he got caught.<\/p>\n

“He is the Tonya Harding of bank robbery,” Colton said. “He decided to kneecap somebody.”<\/p>\n

“The state has done a good job of proving that Justin Fasel robbed Castle Bank,” she added. “That’s all they’ve proven.”<\/p>\n

McHenry County prosecutors were no kinder in their description of Fasel, calling him a “rat” and “scumbag.”<\/p>\n

But his account, they added, is corroborated by other evidence, including a bank employee who identified Reno in a photo lineup and in court said she is “80 percent sure” he was the bank robber.<\/p>\n

“I’m not asking you to like Justin Fasel or what he did,” Assistant McHenry County State’s Attorney Michael Combs said.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t pick him as a witness. (Reno) picked him when he chose Justin Fasel as his getaway driver.”<\/p>\n

If found guilty, Reno faces a minimum sentence of 21 years in prison. He also is facing attempted armed robbery charge stemming from a failed stickup March 24, 2008, at bank in Union.<\/p>\n

Fasel told authorities he and Reno also robbed banks in Elburn and the Kendall County community of Millbrook, but they have not been charged in either case.<\/p>\n

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A McHenry County jury is deliberating the fate of a 19-year-old DeKalb County man charged with robbing a Huntley bank at gunpoint, after his trial came to an abrupt end this morning without him taking the witness stand as his attorney promised. In fact, the defense for Matthew G. Reno, of Hinckley, chose not to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}