Two men from Illinois could spend years in prison after they killed a 45-year-old father, brutally assaulting him outside his home and leaving him there to die.
A Lake County jury on Saturday convicted 23-year-old Nicholas Caban and 22-year-old Jacob Firestone on all charges tied to the 2022 killing of Matthew Ascaridis, including second-degree murder.
The decision followed a six-day trial during which prosecutors presented testimony from more than a dozen witnesses, including law enforcement officers, medical staff, and expert witnesses.
Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said the evidence showed Ascaridis “was killed due to excessive violence from these two offenders,” adding that prosecutors are “thankful that the jury closely followed the forensic and circumstantial evidence in order to see the truth and to convict both offenders on all counts.”
According to a news release from the prosecutor’s office, the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force responded to several noise complaints at Fort Sheridan Beach in Highland Park, where authorities discovered Ascaridis dead around 5:12 a.m. on Sept. 17, 2022. Officials said the victim showed signs of severe trauma.
An autopsy by the Lake County Coroner’s Office found that the victim suffered “catastrophic injuries” to his spinal cord — injuries more commonly associated with car crashes.
The coroner told jurors that Ascaridis was struck in the head multiple times with such force that it left his spinal cord lacerated, according to testimony cited by the Lake & McHenry County Scanner.
The attack began after a confrontation hours earlier, when Ascaridis left his nearby home to investigate loud noises late the night before. The victim’s wife testified that they were packing for a trip around 11 p.m. when they started hearing “loud noises” near their house. Ascaridis called police twice but was told there could be a delay in response. He eventually went to the beach around 1 a.m. to check the situation himself.
Evidence presented during the trial showed that Ascaridis encountered Caban and Firestone on the beach, which led to what authorities described as a “violent confrontation,” The Record North Shore reported.
Despite the brutal nature of the attack, prosecutors said the defendants did not seek help right away. Instead, they waited for hours before calling 911, leaving Ascaridis “alone on the beach, unable to move, gasping for air” before he died, according to the release.
When officers responded to a 911 call at Caban’s home around 5:23 a.m., they found Firestone lying injured in the yard with Caban nearby. Authorities said both men were injured but conscious. The men initially claimed that Ascaridis had attacked them and suffered injuries from a fall, but prosecutors argued that medical evidence and DNA recovered from the scene contradicted those accounts.
Testimony also showed the confrontation began when Ascaridis approached the men about the noise, which included music and activity on the beach, according to Lake & McHenry Scanner.
Caban and Firestone, who were 20 and 18 at the time of the killing, each face between four and 20 years in prison, to be served at 50%. They are currently set to appear in court for sentencing on June 18.
A GoFundMe page for Ascaridis described him as an “incredible husband” to his wife and a “devoted father” to his two children who “always greeted friends and family with his warmth and a smile.
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