Steven L. Zirko
Cruise Ship Piano Player To Face Jury
In Murder And Murder For Hire Trial June 7, 2009
However, the attorney did tell Bertnik that Zirko had no intention of harming Lacey or hiring anyone to harm Lacey. October 22, 2004, police closed their investigation into Zirko’s murder-for-hire plot. Zirko was never detained or arrested.
From October 22, 2004, through December 13, 2004, Lacey called the Palatine and Glenview police departments multiple times requesting that defendants either arrest Zirko or provide the supervision and protection they promised. It is undisputed that police did not provide Lacey with police protection between October 22 and December 13, 2004.
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled in February 2009 that police in Glenview and Palatine couldn't be sued for failing to protect Lacey, even though they had received a tip that Zirko had tried to hire a hit man.
After the couple moved to Chicago, Zirko taught piano and was a former teacher at the City Colleges of Chicago, Illinois. During that time the domestic incidents occurred in Wilmette and Park Ridge, where Lacey formerly lived; in Chicago, where her mother lived; and in Glenview, where Lacey moved with her two sons just two months before she was killed.
Around this same time, the local child protective services branch had also been called. Both boys were in school when their mother was murdered.
It is expected that the prosecution will put chiropractor, Chad Larson on the stand to testify that Zirko wanted him to find a hitman to kill Lacey in the summer of 2004 and that Zirko asked him to charge his credit card every Friday, to create an alibi for Zirko.
Larsen says that he had been treating Zirko for a period of five years and that Zirko had commented to him that Lacey needed to have her legs broken and had asked Larsen if he knew anyone that Zirko could hire to break them. Shortly before Larsen contacted police, Zirko is alleged to have told Larsen that he no longer needed someone to break Lacey’s legs, he needed someone to kill her.
When Larson refused to help Zirko and went to police instead, prosecutors say that Zirko told Larson he and his father would kill Lacey, but he first went to another back up plan. They say Zirko offered a man only identified as "Mike" who also attended Zirko's anger-management class $50,000 to kill the mother of his children.
As well, the prosecution say that gunpowder residue was found on Zirko's right hand and cell phone call records of calls made to the victim minutes before she brutally murdered, tie Zirko to the savage slayings.
The prosecution says it is also going to show that rage was not the only motive for the murders, but that financial gain was also a part of it. They say that Zirko took out a life insurance policy of $500,000 on Mary Lacey and $100,000 on Margaret Ballog.
As well, it is expected that the prosecution will show that Zirko offered to pay a man to give him an alibi for the time of the murder. A fellow prisoner in jail with Zirko is expected to take the stand and testify that after Zirko offered him money for an alibi.
Zirko's cellmate will testify that while in the Cook County Jail Zirko concocted a plan where the cellmate's girlfriend would tell authorities she spoke with Zirko at a Chicago bookstore atthe time of the killings, prosecutors said.
They have audio recordings of Zirko promising to give his cellmate and
his cellmate's girlfriend $5,000 for the alibi, prosecutors said.
They said Zirko gave his cellmate notes hidden in a Bible to coach the
girlfriend, including telling authorities how Zirko was dressed in the
bookstore.
They also alleged Zirko drove his girlfriend's Jeep to Lacey's home, the Jeep had blood in it from the brutal murder, that Zirko cleaned it with a substance that left a white film and that Zirko's mother telephoned his girlfriend twice requesting she clean the Jeep again.
Zirko has pleaded not guilty to each of the charges. Bail had been set at $10 million against Zirko for violating the terms of his conditional discharge stemming from the 2003 domestic battery case, he was also said to be a flight risk because he has been arrested in the past with various aliases and has access to large amounts of cash.
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