In the courts: Looking back at 2024’s high-profile cases in the Sauk Valley

DIXON – From a surprise sentence commutation and a Rock Falls man’s prison sentence for three counts of first-degree murder to teens being charged as adults in first-degree murder and attempted murder cases, Shaw Local has been covering numerous cases moving through courtrooms in Lee and Whiteside counties.

Here are a few of the high-profile cases we have covered in the past year:

Crundwell’s commutation

Rita Crundwell, the former Dixon city comptroller convicted of embezzling $53.7 million from the city – described as the largest municipal theft in U.S. history – was one of about 1,500 people granted clemency by President Joe Biden just weeks before he leaves office. Four years shy of completing a 19-year, seven-month prison sentence for a single count of wire fraud, Crundwell earlier this month was listed among the people whose sentences were being commuted or pardoned in what was the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.

Biden’s sweeping act commuted 1,499 sentences of prisoners who had been released and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and granted pardons to 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes.

A pardon relieves a person of guilt and punishment. Commuting a sentence, as in Crundwell’s case, reduces or eliminates the punishment but doesn’t exonerate the wrongdoing. The Bureau of Prisons website indicates that she originally was set to be discharged from her sentence Oct. 20, 2028, three months before she turns 76.

[ From Arrest to Commutation: The Full Story of Rita Crundwell ]

The Crundwell case began more than a dozen years ago when the mayor, the late Jim Burke, went to the FBI in October 2011 with concerns about phony city bank accounts and money gone missing.

Crundwell was taken out of city hall in handcuffs April 17, 2012, and accused of stealing millions of city funds across her tenure in office. She used the funds to pay for a lavish lifestyle raising champion quarter horses, a $2 million tour bus, jewels, furs, multiple homes and other trappings while Dixon struggled to pay for infrastructure and other projects.

After pleading guilty, she was sentenced Feb. 14, 2013, to almost the 20-year maximum by U.S. District Judge Philip G. Reinhard in federal court in Rockford.

Crundwell was required to serve as least 85% of her sentence, but she was released from federal prison in Pekin in August 2021, about a year after pursuing compassionate release, citing illness and fear of contracting COVID-19. Crundwell cited a variety of health issues in her petition for early release, granted under the terms of the CARES Act, which went into effect March 26, 2020.

In all, Crundwell served 8½ years in the Pekin Correctional Center. Crundwell was allowed to return to her family in Dixon.

Dixon was made almost financially whole by a settlement with the company that gave its books a clean bill of health year after year, and by proceeds from the sale of Crundwell’s belongings.

Rock Falls man ordered to serve three life sentences plus 105 years for deadly arson

Steven W. Coleman, 45, was sentenced Oct. 17 to three consecutive life sentences and another 105 years in prison for setting a fatal fire in June 2020 at the Western Apartments in Sterling. The fire killed Celina Serrano, 13, Shyla Walker, 8, of Davenport, Iowa, and Carrie A. (Hall) Hose, 49.

Coleman was found guilty in July of three counts of first-degree murder and ordered to serve three consecutive life sentences. He also was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with a mandatory 85% to be served, for each of three counts of aggravated arson in regard to severe injuries suffered by two residents and a Dixon firefighter at the scene, for a total of 90 years on those counts. On the final count, a residential arson charge, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Whiteside County Circuit Court Judge Trish Senneff in November denied Coleman’s request to reconsider his sentence.

[ Rock Falls man found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder ]

A jury found him guilty after a five-day trial, agreeing with the prosecution that Coleman set the fire in retaliation for a drug deal in which the cocaine he thought he was purchasing turned out to be fake. The sentences are to be served back to back, and he will not be eligible for parole.

Coleman later filed a motion stating that he had ineffective counsel and was seeking a new trial. During a Sept. 18 hearing, Coleman told Senneff that Dana McCormick, the public defender who represented him at his criminal trial, was unable to effectively represent him because her boss, James Fagerman, was employed as an attorney with the Sterling law firm Mertes & Mertes at the time charges were filed four years ago.

Mertes & Mertes is the law firm representing fire victims in a $100 million civil lawsuit that names Coleman as a defendant. Ruling from the bench, Senneff said she found no evidence of a conflict of interest.

[ Judge denies Rock Falls man’s claims of ineffective counsel at Western Apartments murder trial ]

Coleman was again in court Sept. 26, this time asking for a new trial. Senneff again ruled against Coleman, saying the presented evidence led the jury to return a guilty verdict.

[ Judge denies Sterling arsonist’s new trial request, says evidence shows his actions killed three people ]

He was sentenced Oct. 17. In a motion to reconsider his sentence filed five days later, Coleman argued that the court did not take into consideration each and every factor in mitigation when determining the sentence, that the court placed insufficient weight on the factors in mitigation, and that the sentences imposed were excessive in light of the spirit and purpose of the law.

Coleman has filed a notice of appeal. An appellate court order appointing an appellate defender has been filed.

Ashton teen accused of slaying girlfriend

An Ashton teen was charged with first-degree murder in connection with the Oct. 15 discovery of his 16-year-old girlfriend’s body in the apartment they shared.

David J. Sosa is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the strangulation death of Jaedyn A. Hill, who turned 16 on Oct. 6, Lee County Sheriff Clay Whelan said. Sosa, who turned 18 on Dec. 18, is charged as an adult.

Hill’s death came to light the morning of Oct. 15, when the Lee County Sheriff’s Office received a call about 7 a.m. from the Rochelle Police Department. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office learned that a teenager, later identified as Sosa, had walked into the Rochelle Police Department’s lobby about 6:45 a.m., said he was involved in a murder and provided information. As a result, Lee County deputies went to 702 Richardson Ave., Apt. A, in Ashton, to carry out a welfare check. That’s when they found Hill’s body in the apartment. Sosa and Hill, who were in a dating relationship, resided at the apartment, Whelan said.

According to court documents, Sosa is accused of placing a belt around Hill’s neck and strangling her to the point of asphyxiation. He then walked 11 miles from Ashton to Rochelle to turn himself in at the police department.

The charges carry a sentencing range of 20 years to 60 years in state prison upon conviction.

Sosa’s next court appearance is a pretrial conference at 8:30 a.m. Jan. 30 in Lee County Circuit Court.

17-year-old charged with shooting at Sterling restaurant

A Rock Falls teen charged with attempted murder, burglary and aggravated battery in connection with a Nov. 6 shooting at Sterling’s Pizza Ranch is facing those charges in adult court.

Harrison Webb, who will turn 18 in January, is charged with one count of attempted murder, one count of aggravated battery with a firearm and two counts of burglary. He stands accused of walking into the restaurant’s kitchen about 7:45 p.m. Nov. 6, pulling a gun from the front pocket of his shorts, walking up behind a 17-year-old worker who was preparing pizza pans and shooting him in the neck.

If he is convicted, Webb, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, could spend anywhere from six years to life in prison.

Prosecutors have said Webb and the wounded employee, also a Rock Falls 17-year-old, had had ongoing issues with each other. The teens’ dispute boiled over on social media the morning of Nov. 6 while both teens were part of a Snapchat message group. Prosecutors said Webb walked from his Rock Falls home, crossed a bridge into Sterling and continued walking to Pizza Ranch at 3900 E. Lincolnway.

People were eating in the restaurant as he walked in and headed to the kitchen, where four employees were working, Whiteside County State’s Attorney Colleen Buckwalter said in court, adding that a surveillance camera shows a shooter walked up behind the victim, saying “That’s what you get,” and shooting him from 18 inches away. The bullet entered the back of the victim’s neck and exited through the front. The victim was taken to CGH Medical Center in Sterling, treated and released.

The shooter left the restaurant and was believed to have fled into a nearby cornfield. Webb was arrested at 12:15 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8, when a warrant issued in Whiteside County court that morning was served at his home.

If convicted, Webb faces six to 30 years for attempted murder and would have to serve 85% of the sentence under state law. That could be enhanced to add 25 years or up to life in prison. The aggravated battery with a firearm charge, which also is a Class X felony, carries the same potential sentence of six to 30 years with 85% to be served. The burglary charges carry sentences of three to seven years in prison.

A pretrial conference is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Jan. 22, with a jury trial set to begin Feb. 11 in Whiteside County Circuit Court.

Sterling teen accused of attempted murder after two shot in Sterling

Michael W.T. Bennett Jr., who turned 17 in May, was charged in September in adult court with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, and one count each of aggravated discharge of a firearm and possession of a stolen firearm in a July shooting that injured two teens, according to Whiteside County court documents.

The shooting happened shortly before 6 p.m. July 23 in the area of 13th Avenue and East Fifth Street in Sterling. A 17-year-old boy was shot in the head, and a 14-year-old boy was struck in the leg, according to court documents. Officers said the two injured teens were passengers in a vehicle that was fired upon, resulting in the vehicle colliding with a utility pole.

The occupants of the two vehicles – the one from where police said the gun was fired and the other carrying the injured boys – are acquaintances, according to a Sterling Police Department news release issued shortly after the shooting.

Sterling police announced Sept. 11 that a juvenile, taken into custody Sept. 9, had been charged with one count each of attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and possession of a stolen firearm. The additional charges, naming Bennett, were filed Thursday, Sept. 26. Charging documents indicate that all of the charges could be tried in adult court because of the two charges that allege Bennett committed a battery with a firearm by shooting one victim in the head and the other in the leg. He is accused of gaining possession of the firearm – a Ruger 5.7 – the previous day, and knew that it was a stolen gun, according to court documents.

The one count of aggravated discharge of a firearm accuses him of shooting the Ruger within 1,000 feet of Lincoln Elementary School at 1501 E. Sixth St.

A charge of using a stolen firearm in the commission of an offense was added Dec. 10 to the list of charges.

The attempted murder and aggravated battery charges are Class X felonies that upon conviction carry possible enhanced prison sentences of 25 years to life in prison; 85% of the sentence would have to be served.

His next court hearing, a pretrial conference, is set for 11 a.m. Feb. 7. His trial is slated to begin at 8:30 a.m. March 18.