Oct. 02--Nearly nine years after his parents were murdered in their home near Crystal Lake, Nick Romano Jr. says he "can now move forward."
Romano had long believed his brother, Michael Romano, was the person who killed his father, Nick Romano Sr., and stepmother, Gloria, execution style on Nov. 19, 2006.
On Thursday, Nick Romano Jr. was in the courtroom when a jury found his brother guilty.
"The conviction (in the case of) my best friend and father, Nick, and my stepmother Gloria's killer has been a long time coming," he wrote in a statement released Friday morning. "For almost nine years we have been seeking the truth and looking for answers. On October 1st, 2015 we confirmed what we've known for years. We can now move forward and not have to look over our shoulder to see if he was coming to get us."
Nick Romano Jr., formerly of Crystal Lake, now lives with his wife, Sharon, in Arizona.
Michael Romano, 56, faces 120 years in prison at sentencing Nov. 19, which will be nine years to the day, police say, that he entered the couple's home on a windy road in the Killarney Acres neighborhood near Crystal Lake and killed them.
He then went to the home about 3 a.m. Nov. 20 and called 911 to report finding his parents dead in the home.
Authorities have long maintained that he killed his parents in order to gain inheritance money.
Shortly after the murders, Michael Romano moved to Las Vegas where he was working as a cab driver. He was arrested there in 2012. He has said though he had deep financial debt and a strained relationship with his father, he would have never killed the couple.
Jurors found that Romano told many lies over the years and in police interview tapes, which they saw during his trial that lasted nearly two weeks. They believed he was the only person with the motive, access to the gun and bullets said to have killed the couple, and no alibi to account for his time on the afternoon the couple were killed.
Nick Romano Jr. wore a wire for police during conversations he had with his brother shortly after the slayings and testified against him this week. From the stand, breaking down into tears, he described the loving relationship he had with his father, with whom he talked to often and shared meals with several times a week.
The last time he saw his father alive was the morning of the day he was killed when the two met for their typical weekend breakfast.
In his statement he thanked authorities for seeing this case through to the end.
"They never gave up on this investigation and we will never forget their dedication to this investigation and prosecution," Romano wrote. "Thank you for allowing us to grieve and move forward with our healing."
Amanda Marrazzo is a freelance reporter.
