Three years after Harvard teen fatally shot, Spring Grove man pleads not guilty to murder

More than three years after a Harvard teenager was fatally shot in the head, the now 51-year-old Spring Grove man accused of killing him was declared “with no present doubt” to be fit for trial Friday by a McHenry County judge.

After Judge Michael Coppedge rendered his finding, John M. Maki Jr. was arraigned, and he pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of Dylan Sanchez, 18, who was found dead in Maki’s home May 15, 2019.

Maki, who is currently being held in the McHenry County jail on $5 million bond, was evaluated days after his arrest. On June 28, 2019, two months after the May shooting, he was found unfit to stand trial.

On July 23, 2019, Maki was sent to the Illinois Department of Human Services mental health facility in Elgin, where he received in-patient treatment. He was found to be restored to fitness in September 2019 and returned to the county jail, according to documents in the McHenry County courthouse.

His attorney, Timothy O’Donoghue, had Maki reevaluated in 2020.

Maki was found to be “alert and oriented to person, place and time,” according to the order presented in court Friday signed by O’Donoghue and Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Romito.

“He was able to account for the circumstances of his arrest and the severity of his charges,” according to the order. “His insight and judgment were intact, and he knew why he had been sent to” the Elgin mental health center. “His thought process was logical and sequential.”

Maki was diagnosed as having narcissistic personality disorder with antisocial personality traits and marijuana-use disorder. He was not in need of any medications for restoration intervention, according to the order.

Maki also filled out a 30-item fitness questionnaire that showed he has a factual and rational understanding of the legal proceedings, he could identify his attorneys and said he can, and has been, working with his attorneys to assist in his defense, according to the order.

Additionally, the doctors who evaluated Maki in 2019 and 2020 said he is fit to stand trial.

McHenry County sheriff’s deputies responded about 7:15 p.m. May 15, 2019, to Maki’s home in the 11100 block of Serenity Path, east of Richmond and north of Spring Grove, where they discovered Sanchez’s body, according to police and the indictment filed in the McHenry County courthouse. The teen died from an apparent gunshot wound to the face, according to the McHenry County Coroner’s Office.

Maki is set to appear in court for status Dec. 2.

It still is unclear how Maki and Sanchez were connected.

Attempts to reach O’Donoghue for comment Friday were not successful.