November 23, 2024
Local News

Defense witness said she fabricated murder account

WOODSTOCK – A woman who told police that her cousin and boyfriend were the men who actually killed a McHenry business owner in 2001 took the stand this morning and said she made it all up.

Kenneth E. Smith, 36, is on trial for the third time. He was convicted twice of killing Raul Briseño, who owned Burrito Express on Route 120, but both convictions and subsequent 67-year sentences were overturned on appeal.

Briseño was shot after he chased two men out of the restaurant with a knife.

Susanne Dallas DeCicco told investigators on two separate occasions that Smith had nothing to do with it – because she saw her boyfriend, Russell "Rusty" Levand and cousin, Adam Hiland, go into Burrito Express with a gun they had stolen from her stepfather's closet.

In November 2005, DeCicco made those statements to a Quincy police officer after she had been arrested for shoplifting from a Kohl's. A few months later, she told two members of the Illinois State Police while she was in prison at Dwight Correctional Center.

In the police interviews, DeCicco denied planning any of the attempted robbery. She said that after she saw Levand and Hiland being chased out of the restaurant by two men, she went to her father's house about a block away, only to get there to have them jump in her car and tell her to drive.

Hiland was covered in blood, DeCicco said.

But on the stand Friday, DeCicco said she lied both times.

The first time, she wanted to go home, DeCicco said. She felt that if she didn't tell the police offcer something, he wouldn't let her leave.

DeCicco said she was focused on instant gratification.

"I can't make sense of a lot of things that I said," she told the jurors. "I was ready to go home."

The second time, she said she lied to llinois State Police because she was already caught up in the first lie. She didn't want to pick up any more charges, DeCicco said.

"I thought if I told them I lied, I'd get in more trouble," she said.

Prosecutors also asked DeCicco, who admitted to being a heroin addict, about why she also told family members. DeCicco said that it "almost benefited" her, because her mother felt sorry and would give her money that she would then use on drugs.

Levand also took the stand on Friday and denied any involvement with the Burrito Express murder.

He said he didn't tell DeCicco any details about how the robbery went down.

"I never shot a gun, I wasn't there," Levand said. "So I wouldn't tell someone something I didn't do."

Hiland is expected to testify this afternoon.