2nd man charged in shooting at Harvard home pleads guilty, gets 9 years in prison

A second man pleaded guilty Thursday to discharging a firearm at an occupied home in Harvard and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Andrew Calderon IV, 32, of Harvard, was charged in 2021 with two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm at a building, knowing the building was occupied, and unlawful possession of a firearm as a felon, according to the indictment filed in McHenry County.

In exchange for pleading guilty to the most serious charge, a Class 1 felony, the remaining charges were dismissed, records show.

A Class 1 felony typically can carry a prison term of four to 15 years.

He is required to serve at least 85% of his prison term. When released, he will be on mandatory supervised release for two years. He will receive 847 days of credit for time spent in the county jail since his arrest.

Harvard police said in a news release that on the evening of Nov. 29, 2021, they responded to reports of multiple shots being fired in the 700 block of West Metzen Street.

Multiple gunshots struck a Harvard home, but nobody inside was hurt by gunfire, police said. According to the indictment, Calderon was in the possession of a 9-mm firearm despite a 2013 felony conviction in Cook County.

When taken into custody about a month later, Calderon also was arrested on a separate McHenry County warrant for failing to report an address change as a sex offender. He was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison on this charge, which will run concurrent to his other sentence, documents show.

Juan C. Popoca, 21, of Harvard, also was charged in the 2021 Harvard shooting.

He pleaded guilty last year to aggravated discharge of a firearm at an occupied building, a Class 1 felony, records show. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

He also pleaded guilty to aggravated battery in a public place in connection with an altercation that occurred while he was being held in the county jail.

He was accused of stabbing another inmate with a pencil and striking him “several times with his fist and his knee,” according to the indictment. He was sentenced to two years in prison, which is running concurrent with the firearm charge, court records show.