Judge To Decide Fate of Indiana Mom On Trial for Alleged Role in Fatal Home Invasion

BRIDGEVIEW, IL -- The fate of a 21-year-old Indiana woman on trial for her alleged role in a botched robbery attempt of a Palos Park man who shot one of her friends dead in a sex tryst gone awry now lies in the hands of a judge.

Defense attorney John Paul Carroll motioned that the judge acquit his client, Sarah Risner, because there was no evidence that the homeowner’s life was being threatened when he shot Risner’s friend -- 19-year-old Anthony Dalton -- dead during an alleged attempted robbery. Friday was the second day of Risner's bench trial before Cook County Judge Stephen Connolly.

Risner is accused of driving four Indiana friends to Illinois on July 5, 2016 to meet up with the man who had hired Risner and her friend, Brandy Marshall, 19, for a threesome. Carroll said that Risner and Marshall had never intended to have sex with the man, but to take his money and run. Dalton and another friend, 23-year-old Tyler Gulli, were outside to “protect the girls’ honor,” not to rob the homeowner.

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

“She’s a little girl and she’s scared,” Carroll said. “She wasn’t opening the door to let the boys in, she’s opening the door so she and Brandy can run the flip out.”

Carroll said that the three-inch folding knife Dalton was supposed to be holding when shot by the homeowner was closed when arriving officers found his body lying across the doorway of the man’s house.

“What sense does it make to beat up the man if he gave them money,” Carroll said. “Logic rears its ugly head. The two boys were there as security. It wasn’t robbery to take money for sex.”

Carroll said he had “ten pages of questions” for the homeowner, but the state rested their case based on Risner’s video-taped interview with investigators that was played for the judge.

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

“Mr. D’Angelo is a talented lad,” Carroll continued. “In my 30 years in this business I was floored when they didn’t put the man on the stand when they rested.”

Prosecutor Nick D’Angelo argued that the state had established Risner’s participation in the planning of the “low budget” robbery where they purchased bandanas, hats and rubber gloves from a dollar store so the men and Marshall’s older sister Paige could “beat up and rob the old man.”

“The code word to open the door was ‘go get the condoms,’” D’Angelo said. “The defendant [Risner] unlocked the door and lets them in.”

D’Angelo said Risner’s entry into the man’s home was unlawful, because she and Marshall went in under the ruse for paid sex when their intention was to rob the man.

In the “17 different versions” of the story she told to Cook County Sheriff’s Police investigators, D’Angelo argued that that Risner knew the whole time what the plan was going to be.

“She participated in the planning. The whole time she was lying about how many were participating,” the prosecutor said. “Everytime she was confronted with a life she’d change it a little more.”

Risner further attached herself to the group of young adults by volunteering to drive them in her father’s truck to Palos Park. Dropping Tyler Gulli off at the hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg, Risner “never separated herself,” D’Angelo said.

“We’ve proved all the predicate offenses,” he said.

Judge Stephen Connolly denied the defense’s motion for a directed verdict. Both sides waived closing arguments. The judge is expected to render a verdict after reading case law submitted by both side on June 29.

Risner's friends, Brandy and Paige Marshall, and Tyler Gulli, are being held on $2 million bail each in Cook County Jail where they are awaiting trial.