Lorain man accused of trying to hire others to kill his wife from jail

ELYRIA — A Lorain man already charged in Lorain County Common Pleas Court with attempting to kill his wife has now been charged with trying to hire others to do what he failed to do. Brian Fazio, 40, of Lorain, recently was charged by a Lorain County grand jury with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder, both felonies. He pleaded not guilty to those charges in Judge James Miraldi's courtroom on Dec. 2. Fazio remains in the Lorain County Jail without bond after Miraldi denied bond during a June court hearing. Miraldi wrote that Fazio would remain in jail "until all his pending cases are concluded." Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Chris Pierre, chief of the office's Criminal Division, confirmed that Fazio is accused of trying to have his wife killed — the same victim who survived multiple stab wounds Fazio allegedly inflicted during an attack in Elyria on April 25. While in jail, Pierre said Fazio "gave us more evidence" of his alleged plans to kill the same victim in that case. His ability to correspond with people outside the jail also now is limited because of the new charges, according to court records. Miraldi found "by clear and convincing evidence" that "no bond amount or any conditions could adequately protect the victim, her children or the community, let alone assure (the defendant's) attendance and appearance in court." Fazio is represented in at least five of his six pending cases by attorney Michael Gabelman. A message seeking comment was left for Gabelman on Monday. Fazio already had racked up 37 criminal charges in five cases still making their way through Common Pleas Court when he was charged in the most recent case. In court records that explained a decision to limit Fazio's ability to correspond with those outside the jail, Miraldi wrote that he found Fazio's behavior "to try and hire other inmates to kill his wife only further confirms the appropriateness of the court's denial of bond." He further wrote that he found "in the context of previous evidence presented on (June 16) that (Fazio) is attempting to correspond with others to kill his wife." As a result, in an order entered into the court record on Oct. 25, Miraldi ruled that Fazio should remain in jail until his cases are resolved. The Lorain County Jail "is now ordered to withhold access to materials for written correspondence," Miraldi ruled. "However, (Fazio) may be provided materials to correspond with his attorney. Each page of paper provided shall be accounted for and shown to be placed by (Fazio) in an envelope addressed to (Fazio's) counsel. The jail employees shall not read any of the correspondence, but simply confirm that it was placed in a sealed envelope address [sic] to defense counsel … and then deposited in the appropriate location for mailing after which (Fazio) shall not have the opportunity to tamper with it." In addition, Fazio also is charged with eight counts of rape and two counts of gross sexual imposition in another case involving a juvenile whom authorities said he sexually assaulted. Fazio pleaded not guilty to those charges in Miraldi's courtroom on June 24. Pierre said the juvenile is a relative of Fazio. The case is likely to go to trial early in the new year, and those allegations carry with them the potential of a life sentence due to the juvenile's age. The Chronicle-Telegram typically does not name alleged victims of domestic violence or sexual assault. Elyria police previously said Fazio broke into a garage on Ohio Street on April 25 and lay in wait for the victim. Police reports reviewed by The Chronicle revealed that the woman, age 36 at the time and then living in Elyria, went to check on a strange noise she heard coming from the garage when she found Fazio hiding under a car there. Fazio rolled out from underneath her car, confronted her with a knife and ordered the woman's two children to come into the garage. He accused her of "not being home and keeping the children away from him," according to police reports. Fazio also allegedly ordered one of the children to bring him the woman's phone so that he could go through it "and find out what she has been up to," police reported. Fazio told the victim he had been hiding in the house since the previous night, knew she was not home, threatened multiple times to kill her, "cut her throat and … make sure she would die tonight," and threatened that she was "going to pay for getting the police involved in their affairs," according to Elyria police reports. Fazio paced around the garage with the knife, lunged at the victim and struggled with her while her children tried to protect her. Fazio shoved one of the children when the child tried to protect her mother, before ordering them all into a car "so they could go someplace quiet to further discuss the matter," the woman told police. When Fazio turned his back, the woman ran to the open garage door and told the two children to run to a neighbor's house for help. Fazio followed them outside, fought with the woman as she tried to take the knife from him, and stabbed and cut her, according to the police reports. The woman put up such a fight that Fazio fled with the knife and her cellphone, police said. "All available EPD units" were called to respond and officers found the woman sitting on the side of Ohio Street holding her leg. She had cuts on her hands and leg and wounds to the right side of her stomach that she told officers were made by Fazio stabbing her with a folding buck knife. The children and a neighbor also were present when police arrived. Officers put pressure and a tourniquet on the woman's wounds and she was treated at University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center, authorities said at the time. Officers found Fazio hiding behind a pile of rocks near Smitty's Place on East Bridge Street and arrested him without incident. Following the incident, the woman told officers Fazio had violated every protection order she ever got against him, that she "doesn't know why they keep letting Brian out of jail," and that she believed he would kill her. She told police Fazio also threatened to kill her if she called the police on him; threatened to stab her, slit her throat and "cut your whole head off"; and said she was "not safe anywhere." "I will find you and kill you," Fazio allegedly told the woman, according to what she told Elyria police. When she tried to hide from him, she told police, he kept finding her and sent people to her workplace to damage her car. She appears to have filed for divorce in July, according to court records. Fazio was charged with 14 felonies including attempted murder, kidnapping, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, felonious assault, tampering with evidence, violation of a protection order, domestic violence and disrupting public service along with a misdemeanor theft charge in that case, according to court records. He pleaded not guilty to all those charges June 24. Two weeks earlier on June 10, Fazio pleaded not guilty to five felonies including violating a protection order, tampering with evidence and menacing by stalking and four misdemeanors including violating a protection order and falsification, also in Common Pleas Court. Prosecutors added a further three charges of felony domestic violence and violating a protection order in two other cases, and Fazio pleaded not guilty to those in Miraldi's court on Aug. 5, according to court records. Fazio was awaiting trial on misdemeanor charges of domestic violence and violating protection orders filed in April and March this year, and had pleaded not guilty to those charges when the Elyria incident took place. A convicted felon, Fazio was convicted of theft and misuse of credit cards in January 2018 and was sentenced to two years of probation and more than $6,100 restitution to the victim in the case by Miraldi, according to Lorain County Court records. Records show Miraldi ended Fazio's probation one year early, in January 2019. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on Twitter.