Nicholas Caban and Jacob Firestone face prison time after jurors heard six days of testimony about Matthew Ascaridis’ death.

WAUKEGAN, Ill. — A Lake County jury convicted Nicholas Caban and Jacob Firestone of second-degree murder Saturday in the 2022 beating death of Matthew Ascaridis, a 45-year-old Highland Park husband and father found dead near Fort Sheridan Beach.

The verdict closed a six-day trial built around a late-night noise complaint, a confrontation near Lake Michigan and medical testimony that prosecutors said disproved the defendants’ accounts. Caban, 23, and Firestone, 22, were found guilty on all counts and are scheduled to return to court June 18 for sentencing.

Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said after the verdict that the case turned on forensic and circumstantial evidence. “While we are very satisfied that these two offenders have been found guilty of second-degree murder, we continue to grieve with Matt’s entire family for their devastating loss,” Rinehart said. Prosecutors said the trial began April 13 and included more than a dozen witnesses, among them police officers, medical workers, coroner’s personnel and experts. The state was represented by Ben Dillon, chief of the felony division, and Assistant State’s Attorney Kyle Doyle. Jurors heard that Ascaridis was found around 5:12 a.m. Sept. 17, 2022, after earlier complaints about noise near the beach and after a delay between the confrontation and the defendants’ call to police.

The case began the night before, while Ascaridis and his wife, Darci Ascaridis, were packing for a family trip at their home near Fort Sheridan Beach. She testified that the couple started hearing loud noise around 11 p.m. Sept. 16, 2022. Matthew Ascaridis called police twice. Around 1 a.m., she told jurors, he was told it could take time for an officer to respond. After speaking with the officer by phone, he took a flashlight and walked toward the beach. A witness said Caban and Firestone were on the beach with music and activity that included a motorized surfboard in the water. The witness told investigators he saw a man carrying a flashlight approach, then left the area before the fatal confrontation. A Forest Preserve officer later testified that he arrived around 2:15 a.m. but did not see or hear anything unusual.

Prosecutors said the quiet scene the officer found did not tell the full story of what happened in the dark near the shoreline. A person walking along Fort Sheridan Beach later reported finding Ascaridis lying in the water just feet from shore. Officers found signs of severe trauma. Dr. Eimad Zakariya of the Lake County Coroner’s Office testified that Ascaridis suffered catastrophic spinal cord injuries of a kind he had often seen in car crash victims. Other testimony described repeated blows to the head with enough force to damage the spinal cord, a broken neck, a dozen lacerations to the back of the head and signs of drowning. Prosecutors argued that the injuries showed Ascaridis had been beaten by more than one person while he was not moving. The coroner’s office ruled the death a homicide caused by multiple injuries from a physical fight.

The defendants were found minutes later at a home connected to Caban in the 3400 block of Dato Avenue in Highland Park. Police responded there around 5:23 a.m. after Caban called 911 to report an altercation. Officers found Firestone lying injured in the front yard and Caban standing nearby. Both men were conscious. Firestone was taken first to Highland Park Hospital and later to Evanston Hospital, where he had surgery for a brain bleed. Caban was treated for a cut to his face and another to the back of his head. Investigators testified that Caban said he and Firestone had a confrontation with Ascaridis and that Ascaridis fell on the beach. Another investigator said Firestone claimed from the hospital that Ascaridis had beaten both men. Prosecutors told jurors those claims did not match the medical testimony and DNA evidence recovered from blood at the scene.

The jury’s decision came three and a half years after Ascaridis’ death and after a charging path that included an earlier obstruction allegation against Firestone. Authorities said Firestone was charged shortly after the killing with obstructing justice for allegedly hiding a cellphone and a wheelbarrow. Caban and Firestone, who were 20 and 18 at the time of the killing, were later charged in March 2023 with second-degree murder. The trial focused on whether the violence was justified or whether the defendants used excessive force and then left a badly injured man without help. Prosecutors said in closing arguments that Ascaridis was left alone on the beach, unable to move and gasping for air, before he died. The defense accounts described Ascaridis as the aggressor, but the state argued that the physical evidence showed the defendants’ version could not explain the extent or pattern of the injuries.

Fort Sheridan Beach, near the border of Highland Park and Lake Forest, is a lakefront area where homes, preserves and shoreline paths sit close together. That geography became important at trial because Ascaridis lived near the beach and could hear the disturbance from his home. Testimony placed the first noises around 11 p.m., the call about a delayed response around 1 a.m., the officer’s arrival around 2:15 a.m. and the discovery of Ascaridis’ body shortly after 5 a.m. The time gap was central to the prosecution’s case. Rinehart said the Major Crimes Task Force and the coroner’s pathologist uncovered evidence that Ascaridis was killed by excessive violence. He also credited investigators, the coroner’s office, prosecutors and victim advocates for their work on behalf of the family and the community.

Relatives and supporters described Ascaridis as a devoted husband and father of two. A family fundraising page remembered him as warm, smiling and deeply connected to his wife and children. In court, his wife’s testimony gave jurors the domestic frame of the final night: a couple packing for a trip, a noise outside, phone calls for help and a walk toward the beach with a flashlight. The case also showed the aftermath for the two defendants, who returned from the confrontation injured and later offered accounts that prosecutors challenged as incomplete and inconsistent. Jurors were asked to weigh those accounts against the physical evidence, the coroner’s findings and the timing of the 911 call. Their verdict found both men criminally responsible for the fatal beating.

Caban and Firestone each face a sentencing range of four to 20 years in prison, with the sentence to be served at 50%. Both are due back in court June 18, when the case moves from the verdict to punishment.

Author note: Last updated May 9, 2026.