Island Lake man tied to ‘road rage’ shooting and ‘large amount of narcotics’ gets 3 years in prison

An Island Lake man charged in “road rage” shooting and for possessing large amounts of marijuana and hallucinogenics avoided potentially decades in prison Wednesday when he pleaded guilty to a lesser amended charge.

Joseph Crisara II, 36, pleaded guilty to attempted unlawful possession of 2,000 to 5,000 grams of marijuana, or about 4.4 to 11 pounds, with intent to deliver. He was sentenced to three years and three months in prison. The prison term is to be served at 50% and he will be on 12 months of mandatory supervised release afterward. He will receive credit for 603 days spent in the county jail, Assistant State’s Attorney Fara Momen said. The sentence was stayed until May 20 when he is to turn himself in at the county jail. He also is required to pay fines and fees of $4,390.

In exchange for his guilty plea, more serious charges were dismissed, including unlawful possession with intent to deliver more than 200 grams of psilocybin, a Class X felony that could have sent him to prison up to 30 years. Other charges of concealing or aiding a fugitive and obstructing justice, which were filed in connection with a “road rage” incident involving a Waukegan man ,also were dismissed.

Crisara was charged with knowingly concealing evidence by fleeing the scene of a shooting near McHenry on April 24, 2022, and taking the alleged shooter, Juan Colon, 28, and the firearm used, with him, according to the criminal complaint filed in his case.1

Colon is accused of shooting at an occupied vehicle in what police said was a “road rage” incident. At the time, Crisara was on parole for drug-induced homicide in the 2015 death of a Mundelein man, records show. Crisara was arrested five days after the shooting at his home, where police found he was in possession of a “large amount of narcotics,” according to a release from the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office at the time.

Colon, whose case is pending, is charged with attempted first-degree murder and being an armed habitual criminal, both Class X felonies; he’s as well as three counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm and unlawful use or possession of a firearm by a felon, according to the criminal complaint.

Colon, who was accused in the complaint of shooting at the driver’s side of an occupied vehicle, was considered “armed and dangerous,” authorities said at the time they were looking for him. He was arrested more than a month after the shooting in Lake County, police said. Held in the county jail since his arrest, is Colon is due in court May 30.