Photo Courtesy of the Portland (ME) Police Department / Twitter
A white man in Maine was bailed out of prison on Friday, Aug. 25, after serving less than half of his 7.5-year prison sentence for murdering his sister’s Black Muslim boyfriend in 2019.
Many, including the victim’s family, are confused and outraged after a judge annulled Mark Cardilli Jr.’s original manslaughter conviction and ordered a new trial despite being guilty of murdering Isahak Muse during a confrontation, according to AP News.
According to the judge, Cadilli’s attorneys, one of them being a district judge, failed to “vigorously argue” self-defense during the trial — like that makes sense and doesn’t scream “biased.”
The judge set Cardilli’s bail to $20,000, leading to his release.
He was initially charged with murder, but the judge decreased it to manslaughter.
Muse’s sister, Asli Muse, expressed sadness that the judge’s decision granted her brother’s murderer freedom.
“We are devastated and shocked to hear of this decision and can not understand how we could lose my little brother, but Cardilli will get to walk around free,” Asli said. “He took my brother’s life and was convicted of this. It is not fair that he barely served any time and can just walk away from it all. We can’t get my brother back.”
The incident happened in 2019. A 22-year-old Muse was dating Cardilli’s then-17-year-old sister and was over at her family’s Portland house despite her bail conditions banning him from being near her. The family asked Muse to leave to comply with the bail conditions, but Muse declined. The disagreement turned into an altercation, and Cardilli claimed Muse assaulted him and backed him into a wall. He reportedly “feared for his life” and got his handgun to fire three times at Muse. One of the bullets grazed Muse, and the other two hit him.
Muse was pronounced dead at the scene. Following his death, Portland’s Muslim community condemned Cardilli’s actions, calling it a hate crime against a Black Muslim man.