Now the I-Team has learned there will be roommate payback at Mundt's trial in May when the roommate has agreed to turn the table on Mundt and tell a jury that the ex-Northwestern official was actually the murderer.
"He was to me, the sunshine of my heart... and there's a hole in my heart that will never be filled," said Ellen Carroll, the mother of victim Jamie Carroll. Ellen Carroll testified Monday in a Kentucky courtroom and then collapsed in a hallway after testifying about her son, who was stabbed, shot, and sledgehammered so he would fit into a plastic drum that was found buried in a Louisville basement.
Prosecutors charged former Northwestern University official Jeffrey Mundt and his roommate, Joseph Banis, with his murder. The man was killed during a meth-fueled tryst in Mundt's Louisville home.
Mundt and roommate Joey Banis are being tried separately, with Banis convicted by a jury last week, mostly on Mundt's testimony.
On Monday, Banis was spared the death penalty and given 20 years to life, in exchange for his taking the witness stand against Mundt, who is scheduled for prosecution in May.
Mundt's attorney Monday night says they still plan to go to trial, despite the promise that Banis will testify against the 41-year old Mundt. When Mundt left Northwestern five years ago, he was in charge of redesigning the university's financial IT system.
Monday night, he is in a corner, having already acknowledged that he was present for the murder and that he helped beat the victim and bury him in his own basement.
Now, a jury will hear his roommate describe how he also killed the man with a knife and gun.
Jeff Mundt has already escaped the death penalty by agreeing to testify against his roommate; so there doesn't seem to be much open for negotiation if either side wanted a plea agreement.
The I-Team has not heard back from the prosecutor in Louisville.
