Plea Deal Offered To Three Friends Charged In Fatal Palos Home Invasion

PALOS PARK, IL -- The remaining co-defendants facing first-degree murder charges in a botched home invasion that left one of their friends dead after the Palos Park homeowner shot him, have been offered a plea deal. Brandy Marshall, 20, her 21-year-old sister, Paige Marshall, and their friend, Tyler Gulli, 24, appeared Friday before Cook County Judge Stephen Connolly, where a trial date was to have been set. Their friend, Sarah Risner, 21, who also took part in the alleged plot, was found guilty in June on a first-degree murder charge following a two-day bench trial.

Cook County prosecutor Nick D’Angelo extended an offer of 18 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections to the three. The young adults, all from Northwest Indiana, would receive credit for time served in the Cook County Jail. Each would be required to serve 15 years and 3 months, or, 85 percent of their sentence. All three co-defendants would be out of prison before their fortieth birthdays. It also means that the Marshall sisters’ young children would grow up without their mothers.

“If any of them accept it, they have to testify against those who don’t accept the offer,” D’Angelo told the judge.

On July 5, 2016, Brandy Marshall and Risner were allegedly hired by the 65-year-old homeowner to come his house in unincorporated Palos Park for a menage a trois. Unbeknown to the homeowner, the three women along with their two male friends, Gulli and Anthony Dalton, 19, were plotting to rob and beat up the man, purchasing masks and rubber gloves from a dollar store, without following through on the sex, D’Angelo said.

At a prearranged signal, Brandy Marshall was to open the man’s front door where the other three were waiting outside to rush the homeowner, the complaint said. Marshall, however, allegedly couldn’t get the door unlocked. When the homeowner went to help her, prosecutors said he caught a glimpse of the two men and Paige Marshall waiting outside. Prosecutors said the man went into the kitchen to get his gun and when he returned he shot Dalton, killing him, and wounded Gulli in the leg.

The homeowner was never charged because he had a valid FOID and conceal-carry license. Assistant public defender Dan Nolan, who is representing Paige Marshall, referred to the homeowner as a “mystery man” who “shot a kid.”

“The homeowner never testified to the grand jury,” Nolan said. “We made arrangements for him and his civil attorney to come in for an interview, but we were being misled. He’s avoiding us and our investigators. His statement to police was sketchy.”

Nolan said he had just received the transcript from Risner’s trial on Friday, and wasn’t prepared to make “substantive motions,” including a substitution of judge, a separate trial for his client and a deposition of the homeowner.

“We want a crack at [the homeowner] during pretrial,” Nolan said.

Nolan also requested the homeowner’s background, which D’Angelo was to have produced, according to the judge. D'Angelo, who never called the homeowner to the stand during Risner’s trial, argued that he wasn’t required to produce the homeowner’s background because “I don’t know if I’ll be calling him as a witness.”

Later, D’Angelo invited Nolan and Gulli’s attorney, Joshua Kutnick, up to his office where he would produce the homeowner’s background.

The co-defendants' attorneys said they needed time to discuss the state’s offer to their clients, as well as review the transcript from Risner’s trial. The judge had set a Sept. 5 trial date, apparently without consulting the other attorneys, one of the lawyers said after the hearing. Kutnick wanted a continuance of the trial if negotiations for the plea deal broke down. Brandy Marshall’s attorney was not present at Friday’s hearing. Paige and Brandy Marshall are due back in court Aug. 22; Gull on Aug. 29.

Risner was also have been sentenced on Thursday, but fired her attorney, John Paul Carroll, following her guilty verdict from her bench trial in June. Risner’s new attorneys, father-and-son team Steven and Joshua Richards, filed on motion on Risner’s behalf for a new trial. Her next court day is Sept. 12. D’Angelo said the same plea offer was made to Risner, but she rejected it.

Paige and Brandy Marshall are due back in court Aug. 22; Gull on Aug. 29.

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