Northwestern University, Chicago IL, Former Employee gets life sentence in murder-for-hire plot Federal prosecutor, drug agent were his targets

July 06, 2012|By Annie Sweeney, Chicago Tribune reporter

"A university medical researcher who was upset in 2009 that he faced as much as 14 years in prison for manufacturing Ecstasy in his suburban home was sentenced Friday to life in prison for plotting to kill the federal prosecutor and drug agent who were behind his charges.

Patrick Bagley, the veteran Drug Enforcement Administration agent targeted in the plot, told a federal judge how he first learned of the death threat three days before Christmas in 2009.

"I was afraid for me. I was afraid for my family," said Bagley, who asked the judge to imprison Frank Caira for life. "Having to tell my wife and put my family through what they went through and how my family still isn't the same from that day — it's just not something that anybody should have to go through."

A federal jury convicted Caira last summer of plotting the murder-for-hire of Bagley and Assistant U.S. Attorney Shoshana Gillers after their efforts led to his indictment on charges that he manufactured Ecstasy pills in his Downers Grove home from 2005 to 2008. Investigators said he ordered chemicals and equipment he needed while working at Northwestern University.

The jury also convicted Caira of seeking to kill a dog owned by his own trial attorney. The drug charges against him are still pending.

Life in prison is a rare punishment, particularly for a crime in which no one was killed. But Caira's targeting of two federal law enforcement officers sharply boosted the punishment he faced under federal sentencing guidelines. He had no previous criminal record before his drug charges.

"There is disrespect for the legal process that is profound," U.S. District Judge Suzanne Conlon said in issuing her sentence. Caira sought to "compromise, threaten and terrorize people who are just doing their jobs," she said.

According to prosecutors, Caira was secretly recorded during the plot expressing frustration in late 2009 that under a proposed plea deal, he faced 14 years in prison for the pending drug case. He hatched the murder plot with pal Jack Mann as the two sat on a bench at the Oak Brook shopping center. Caira spoke of his need for a "magic trick," authorities said.

Federal authorities were tipped off to the plot by a gang member — who was never charged — who came forward after Mann approached him about committing the murders in exchange for bricks of cocaine and a recipe for the drugs.

Mann eventually cooperated, too, and provided key testimony against Caira at trial. Prosecutors also had undercover recordings as well as hundreds of text messages — some in coded language — in which Caira and Mann outlined the plot.

Mann was sentenced to 81/2 years in prison, which Caira and his attorneys called highly unfair in light of the life sentence Caira received.

"People like Mr. Caira don't deserve to die in jail," said Beau Brindley, Caira's attorney, who raised questions about Caira's mental competency.

Caira, 41, who is married but has no children, continued Friday to maintain his innocence in 20 minutes of rambling remarks, claiming Mann had set him up and that his trial attorney had failed to adequately represent him.

"I had no desire or intent to hurt or kill anyone," he said while apologizing to Bagley and Gillers.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Tinos Diamantatos noted that Caira never took any "affirmative steps" to terminate the plot."

asweeney@tribune.com

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