Bench Trial Underway For Indiana Mom Charged In Fatal Palos Home Invasion

BRIDGEVIEW, IL — The bench trial of a 21-year-old Indiana mom facing murder and home invasion charges after a Palos Park homeowner shot and killed one of her friends in an alleged sex tryst gone awry is underway.

Prosecutors rested their case after an afternoon of testimony in the trial of Sarah Risner, 21, who allegedly participated in a plot to rob the homeowner after he solicited her and another female accomplice for paid sex in July of 2016. Looking wan in a blue jail uniform over a white long-sleeved shirt, the mother of two young sons calmly watched her videotaped confession with two Cook County Sheriff Police investigators played for the court Thursday afternoon.

Risner and her 19-year-old friend Brandy Marshall “dressed cute” when they set out from Indiana with three other friends on July 5, 2016. Risner and Marshall were promised $350 for a paid threesome with the wealthy homeowner in unincorporated Palos Park, prosecutor Nick D’Angelo said.

>>> Fatal Home Invasion Began as Sex Tryst and Robbery Scheme: Inside the Crime

After a prearranged signal, the women’s alleged accomplices — Marshall’s 20-year-old sister Paige Marshall, Tyler Gulli, 23, and Anthony Dalton, 19 — were going to beat up and rob the man after rushing his house, according to the charges. Instead, the homeowner, a valid FOID card and conceal-carry permit holder, shot at the young adults who were wearing bandannas over their faces, killing Dalton and hitting Gulli in his leg.

Risner and Brandy Marshall collected the wounded Gulli and fled in Risner’s father’s truck, leaving Paige Marshall behind. The two women dropped Gulli off at Silver Cross Hospital, then headed back to Indiana where they all lived. Cook County police stopped the two near I-80 and took them both into custody.

When Cook County Sheriff's Patrol Officer McGreal arrived at the home of a reported shooting in the Palos area around 10:50 p.m. July 5, she could see Anthony Dalton's body laying across the front doorway. The officer testified that her attention was diverted to a young woman — Paige Marshall — emerging from the property's bushes. Prosecutors said Paige Marshall gave her sister and friends’ information to police, including the black 2011 Chevy Silverado pickup truck Risner had borrowed from her father to drive her friends to Illinois.

Risner’s attorney, John Paul Carroll, demanded that his client’s entire alleged confessional video be played for Cook County Judge Stephen Connolly.

“It’s not appropriate for the state to excise [videos],” Carroll said.

“I don’t know everything about the case like you all do,” Connolly told the attorneys. “I'm hearing it for the first time. If there’s good stuff and bad stuff than the state has to take that.”

In her recorded interrogation video with Cook County Sheriff investigators Leslie Pratts and her partner Gary Contreas, Risner changed her story five times of the events leading up to the shooting of her friends, D’Angelo said.

Risner said on the video that Anthony Dalton gave her $16 gas money to drive him and Brandy Marshall to Illinois because of a “dude” that owed Dalton money “for quite a while.” On the way to Illinois, they picked up Gulli and used the GPS on Gulli’s phone to guide them to a man’s house.

When they pulled up to the driveway of the house, Risner said a man wearing glasses was standing outside the house. She and Brandy waited in the truck while Dalton and Gulli got out and walked up the driveway.

“I heard yelling and gunshots. Anthony was laying on the ground,” Risner told the investigators. “Tyler screamed, ‘help me, I’ve been shot.’”

Risner said she heard three to four gunshots. She and Brandy Marshall loaded Gulli into the truck and headed to Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox. On the way, Gulli told Risner to “take it easy on the bumps because it hurts.” He also called his mother to tell her he’d been shot.

When they arrived at the hospital, Risner said she went into the ER to grab a wheelchair. They wheeled Gulli into the emergency room and left to go home to Indiana.

Pratts questioned the veracity of Risner’s story, asking her if she didn’t find it odd that Gulli and Dalton had bandannas around their necks which they used to cover their faces and were wearing hoodies and hats in warm weather.

“Do you understand the severity of what happened?” Pratts asked Risner. “I don’t think you do. You’re either going to help yourself or you’re going down. You’re smart enough not to BS us.”

Leaving Risner alone in the interview room, the two investigators came back an hour or so later. Pratts told Risner that everyone who was “involved” was in the sheriff’s police headquarters in Maybrook giving statements.

“We already know the truth,” Pratts said. “We got a problem. Right now you’re not telling the truth. I want to give you the chance to do what’s right by you and your boys.”

Risner later tells the investigators on the video that Brandy Marshall had arranged a tryst with the Palos Park man, in which Marshall was to have received $200 and Risner $150. The five went to the Dollar General Store in Crown Point, Indiana, that afternoon to buy bandannas. They also went to an AutoZone to buy pepper spray but didn’t have enough money.

“Brandy said, ‘He wants to pay me to [EXPLETIVE] him. She said, ‘My aunt used to do it all the time and said it was easy money,’” Risner said. “We were going to get the money and leave. Anthony and Tyler were going to come in and beat him up and rob him.”

When the women were inside the man’s house, Risner said she needed to go out to the car to get condoms. The man followed her to the front door. When she opened it, the man saw Dalton crouched behind a planter with a bandanna covering his face.

“He asked, ‘Who’s that?’ and went into the kitchen,” Risner told the investigators. “Brandy got the door unlocked. Anthony was a few steps inside when the man shot him and Tyler.”

Risner said she saw the man talking on the phone when they grabbed Gulli and left. She later admitted that a fifth alleged accomplice was in the Silverado, Paige Marshall. Pratts asked Risner why she didn’t tell them that Paige Marshall was in the car before.

“I didn’t want to get her into trouble,” Risner said.

“Why is she so special?” Pratts asked. The investigator informed Risner that Paige Marshall was in the station.

Paige Marshall was to have followed the men into the homeowner’s house “to get what she could,” Risner said.

“What do you think happened to Anthony?” Pratts asked.

“I don’t know, I hope he’s OK,” Risner said. “I do know he wasn’t breathing.”

After Risner and Marshall dropped Gulli off at the hospital, they talked about going back to Palos Park to look for Paige. Her sister said Paige Marshall would figure out a way to get back to Indiana “even if she had to hitchhike,” Risner said. The two decided to go home.

Pratts told Risner that she was “very lucky” that she, too, didn’t get hurt.

“I know,” Risner said. “I’m thanking God that I’m alive.”

The defense did not have any questions for the investigator. The bench trial will get underway Friday morning in Bridgeview, where closing arguments may take place. If convicted, Risner faces 20 to 60 years for first-degree murder and six to 30 years for home invasion.

The Marshall sisters and Gulli are in Cook County Jail awaiting trial. The four co-defendants are each being held on $2 million bail.

The judge's name was originally reported as Matthew Carmody. The judge on this case is Stephen Connolly.