Marijuana, cocaine, mushrooms and guns stashed in McHenry apartment lead to 3-year prison sentence

A Spring Grove man – the fourth and final person convicted in a McHenry narcotics and drugs case – was sentenced to three years in prison Friday, according to court records in the McHenry County courthouse.

Michael Strauss, 20, pleaded guilty to unlawful possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, a Class 2 felony, the records show.

In exchange for his plea, additional counts were dismissed, including more serious Class X felonies of manufacturing and delivering more than 5,000 grams of marijuana, and manufacturing and delivering between 15 and 100 grams of cocaine, as well as possession of cocaine and marijuana, criminal conspiracy, and illegally possessing a firearm and ammunition without a firearm owner’s identification card, according to the original indictment filed in McHenry County court.

Had Strauss been convicted on the Class X felonies, he could have been sentenced to between six and 30 years in prison on each charge.

He is required to serve 50% of his prison sentence and will be on 12 months of mandatory supervised released afterward. He will receive 14 days credit for time spent in the county jail.

He also is ordered to pay $3,700 in court fines and fees, according to a supplemental sentencing order.

Strauss was charged last year along with Liam Keegan, 22, and Jade D. McGuire, 21, both of McHenry, and Austin Hird, 20, of Spring Grove.

Keegan and McGuire, who lived together in a McHenry apartment, where they were arrested Feb. 9, 2022, and where there was a 1-year-old child, have since had their cases adjudicated. In addition to serious drug-related charges, Keegan and McGuire also were charged with child endangerment.

Hird’s case was adjudicated in May.

At the McHenry apartment, police seized cocaine, marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, two AR-15-style rifles and a 9-mm pistol, according to a news release from the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office at the time of the arrests.

That included 6 pounds of marijuana flower, 7 pounds of marijuana wax, 774 1-gram THC cartridges and 51.6 pounds of marijuana edibles, according to a motion filed by prosecutors in Keegan’s case.

More than $1,000 in cash also was found, in addition to packaging materials, digital scales and a vacuum sealer, according to the news release.

The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Task Force, which includes members of the Lake in the Hills and McHenry police departments, responded to the scene and seized about 66.5 pounds of marijuana products, 112 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, 50.7 grams of cocaine and the three guns, according to a release.

Strauss admitted to police that the items were his, according to a prosecutor’s motion on file.