A Grayslake man was found guilty Friday of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of another man at a Round Lake home in 2022.
Following a four-day trial, a Lake County jury delivered its verdict against Jesus Vargas in the death of Brian Mahdee, 37, of Round Lake Beach.
During the trial, Vargas, 33, testified that he acted in self-defense after Mahdee advanced toward him armed with a box cutter. Prosecutors mocked Vargas’s account of the stabbing.
Assistant State’s Attorney Brooke Wanzenberg called the defendant’s version of events a “pretty lame attempt” to paint Mahdee as the aggressor. Vargas, she said, attacked Mahdee as they both were in a garage at the home of a Vargas friend.
During his testimony Thursday, Vargas said he did not know Mahdee well, but they ended up at a Vernon Hills gathering on Feb. 27, 2022, and both smoked methamphetamine. Later, he said, they ended up at a friend’s house.
Vargas said he and Mahdee argued, and Mahdee threatened Vargas’s children and their mother, and then came at Vargas with the box cutter.
“Brian acted first, and luckily, Jesus reacted,” Vargas’s attorney, Lawrence Wade, told jurors in his closing argument.
In her closing argument, Wanzenberg repeatedly noted that Mahdee received more than 40 stab wounds, and Vargas had three superficial cuts on his arm. For emphasis, she counted to 40.
Vargas’ self-defense claims, she said, were “preposterous” and a lie. After killing Mahdee in an unprovoked attack, Vargas placed a box cutter on the dead man’s chest to stage the scene, the prosecutor said.
