TUESDAY- Nearly two years after the body of Mark Fisher ’06 was found in a Brooklyn park, two men charged in connection with his muder are set to go on trial this week in New York.
Jury selection for the murder trial of accused gunman Antonio Russo, 19, and alleged accomplice John Guica, 21, began Monday, with the trial set to begin Wednesday in the Brooklyn Supreme Court building.
The New Jersey Herald reported on Tuesday that both Russo and Guica have been charged with second-degree murder, robbery and other charges.
If convincted, Russo and Guica would face a minimum of 15 years to life in prison.
Prosecutors expect the trial to last for two weeks.
The New Jersey Herald reported that the jury consists of nine women, six men and three alternates.
Authorities believe that Guica targeted Fisher for the initiation of Russo into Guica’s gang, “GM” or “Ghetto Mafia,” according to a report in the New York Daily News.
Police say that before the shooting, Guica told another member that the gang wasn’t being taken “seriously enough” and from then on, murder would be included in the initiation ritual. Authorities say Guica supplied the gun Russo used to kill Fisher.
Police say that during the night of Oct. 12, 2003, Fisher had been at a party in the Brooklyn home of Guica, with Meredith Denihan, a friend of Angel DiPietro ’06. Fisher had met Denihan while at a bar in the Upper East Side with DiPietro and other Fairfield students the same night.
Because so many at the party remained silent when questioned about the events that followed, it took investigators a full year to arrest suspects.
During that time police and members of Fisher’s family criticized some of Fisher’s friends for not being completely forthright with police.
The tragic incident left Fisher’s family, friends and peers with unanswered questions about what actually occurred on the night of his death. But Monday marked the start of what many hope will lead to answers.
“Really, it feels like we’re reliving the whole thing,” Michael Fisher, Mark’s father, told The Mirror on Tuesday. “It’s very hard on us.”
“The only thing we want to find is the truth,” he added.
“After two years, it’s finally here,” Fisher’s aunt, Ruby Bonanno, told the New Jersey Herald. “We just want to hear what takes place, and for whoever did it, justice should really take place.”
According to the New Jersey Herald, Nancy Fisher, Mark’s mother, has attended every hearing after Russo was arrested in November, 2004.
“Mark was the kind of person that anyone who met him loved him,” Michael Fisher told The Mirror. “Everybody I’ve spoken to who knew him has told me that.”
“We loved him,” he added. “We wish he never even went [to New York] that night.”
Fairfield friends of Fisher agreed that Mark is someone they will never forget.
“Mark Fisher was one of the most fun-loving, determined, responsible people I have met at Fairfield,” said Fisher’s close friend, Mary Boehmer ’06. “I miss him.”
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