Plea negotiations fail; Brian Fazio attempted murder, conspiracy trial is Oct. 2

Following unsuccessful plea negotiations between his attorneys and Lorain County prosecutors, convicted rapist Brian Fazio probably will go on trial Oct. 2 on charges he attempted to murder his estranged wife in Elyria in April 2021. Fazio, 42, is serving a life sentence in prison with the possibility of parole after 44 years after being convicted of raping and molesting a teenage girl following a trial in Lorain County Common Pleas Court in December. He also was labeled a Tier III sex offender. An appeal of the conviction has been submitted to the 9th District Court of Appeals in Akron. In the meantime, Fazio is charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, domestic violence, violating a protection order and other crimes in five cases still to be decided in common pleas court. He has pleaded not guilty in all of them and now sits in the Lorain County Jail pending trial. Judge James Miraldi said Thursday that the trial is scheduled to start on Oct. 2. "Numerous efforts" to resolve those cases through a plea agreement have failed, Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Daniellela Leigh told Miraldi during a 10-minute hearing in his courtroom. "I do not believe that we have a resolution and I believe that this matter will be proceeding to trial on Oct. 2," she said. Attorneys Michael Gabelman, who is representing Fazio along with attorney William Mooney, said the same. Gabelman said a defense proposal for Fazio to plead guilty to all the charges and get a 30-year prison sentence concurrent to the sentence he's serving now was rejected by prosecutors. The defense likewise rejected an offer by prosecutors that was contingent on Fazio dropping his appeal of the rape conviction, Gabelman said. Elyria police and the prosecutor's office allege that Fazio broke into a garage, ambushed, stabbed and tried to kill his estranged wife in front of their children during an attack in Elyria on April 25, 2021. The alleged victim managed to get away and survived the attack. Fazio ran, but Elyria police found him hiding nearby and he was arrested. While in jail, Fazio allegedly tried to hire someone else to finish the job, but those plans were foiled. Miraldi then ordered limits on Fazio's ability to communicate with the outside world from inside the jail. That included no contact with the alleged victims, no contact with anyone else who might contact the alleged victims, and no writing of letters "that might aggravate some of the issues that are alleged in some of the counts here," Miraldi said Thursday. "We didn't want him making contact with anyone to perform anything illegal," he said. In the eight months he's been in prison, Fazio has had access to mail but "to my knowledge, there have been no incidents," Gabelman said. Miraldi scheduled a hearing on Sept. 11 to hear arguments from Fazio's attorneys to lift some of those sanctions prior to trial. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.