A trial began Tuesday in Lake County for two men who say they acted in self-defense in the 2022 lakefront beating death of a Highland Park man.
Jurors listened to opening statements in the second-degree murder trials of Nicholas Caban and Jacob Firestone, charged in the death of Matthew Ascaridis, a 45-year-old husband and father of two who lived with his family along the Lake Michigan shore.
The jury heard lawyers describe a fatal confrontation, with prosecutors saying the defendants attacked and killed Ascaridis, and defense attorneys contending that Ascaridis was the aggressor.
The use of force by Caban and Firestone, Assistant State’s Attorney. Ben Dillon said, was not justified, but was “criminal and deadly.” Authorities recovered Ascaridis’ DNA from the hands of both defendants, Dillon said.
“Matthew’s blood is literally on their hands,” he said.
Attorney Jed Stone, who is representing Firestone, said Ascaridis brought a heavy flashlight to the encounter and struck both defendants with the light, and attempted to drown Caban in the lake.
“These boys had to defend themselves,” Stone told the jurors.
Attorney Adam Sheppard, who, along with his father Barry, is representing Caban, noted that Ascaridis weighed 90 pounds more than Caban.
The fatal confrontation took place in the early morning hours of Sept.17, 2022, when Caban was 20 and Firestone was 19.
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The pair, along with a third teen, who left the area before the altercation, were on the beach at the Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve playing with a powered surf toy and making noise that had caused Ascaridis to shine the flashlight out the window of his home and shout several times that the beach was closed, his wife, Darci Ascaridis, testified Tuesday.
He had also made two noise complaint calls to police and decided to go down to the beach at around 1:20 a.m. after being told that a forest preserve ranger would not be able to respond for perhaps an hour, Darci Ascaridis testified.
“We were getting frustrated because the police didn’t come,” she told jurors.
Darci Ascaridis said she and her husband were planning to leave the next day on a trip to Greece. After her husband headed to the beach, she said she fell asleep and did not awaken until around 5 a.m. as police converged on the area.
Ascaridis’ body was found by a man walking the beach several hours later, at about the same time Caban was calling 911 to report the incident. Firestone suffered a serious head injury from being struck with the flashlight.