Courtney A. Sherman | Round Lake Beach police
Courtney A. Sherman | Round Lake Beach police

A Fox Lake teen was sentenced to three years in prison for her role during a cell phone robbery that turned deadly this past spring in Round Lake Beach.

43-year-old North Chicago man Trinidad Javier Bueno Sanchez was killed on April 24 when he was dragged by a car driven by a 17-year-old girl in the Round Lake Beach Meijer parking lot, where he was supposed to sell a woman in the car his cellphone.

When officers arrived they spotted Trinidad Bueno-Sanchez lying on the ground, conscious, police said. Bueno-Sanchez was taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville with life-threatening injuries, where he later died.

Police and the Lake County Major Crime Task Force learned Buneo-Sanchez had placed an ad to sell his phone on an app called, “Offer Up,” police said. He was contacted by Courtney A. Sherman, 18, of Fox Lake, to buy it for an agreed-upon price of $450.

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Buneo-Sanchez and Sherman agreed to meet in the Meijer parking lot, police said. Sherman arrived with several other juveniles in a vehicle.

He went up to the car and they asked to see the phone. They then handed him an envelope with three $1 bills and Walmart receipts. Buneo-Sanchez was leaning into the car window, disputing the payment, when the driver accelerated after being told by Sherman, who was in the back seat, to “go.”

His body was dragged by the vehicle before he then fell and struck his head on the pavement as the vehicle drove off, police said. After questioning, police learned Sherman and the girls had planned to steal the phone.

Bueno-Sanchez’s death was ruled a homicide caused by head trauma, according to the Lake County Coroner’s Office.

Sherman was arrested and charged with reckless homicide and robbery, police said. Two of the 17-year-old girls were also charged with reckless homicide and robbery.

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A civil lawsuit was filed by Sanchez’s family members against Sherman and two of the other girls and their parents in June.

The family’s attorney, Julio Argueta, said in a statement that “This case is the very definition of a senseless tragedy. Mr. Bueno Sanchez’s wife and his five children will never get to spend another day with her husband or their father. All because of a cellphone. Consequently, we intend to seek out justice for this family through every available avenue.”

In court on Monday, Sherman cried as the daughter of Bueno-Sanchez testified.

“I hate listening to my little brother cry at night because his dad isn’t coming home,” Ameyali Olmos told Sherman in court during the sentencing hearing, the Daily Herald reported.

“Our family was so perfect with him, and you took that away from us.”

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Judge Victoria Rossetti sentenced Sherman to three years in prison for her role in Bueno-Sanchez’s death. The two other teen girls have taken plea deals, the Daily Herald reported.