A judge denied pre-trial release to a man accused in the murder of a 15-year-old girl that prosecutors said was shot when the suspect fired a gun into her Round Lake Beach home as she ate dinner.
Shorbonia Poole Jr., 19, of Round Lake Beach, is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated discharge of a firearm and unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Jeffrey Facklam said during a detention hearing Wednesday that the Round Lake Beach Police Department responded around 9:10 p.m. on July 24 to the 1500 block of Cherokee Drive in Round Lake Beach.
911 callers reported hearing some type of explosion in the area.
Officers discovered that Valeria Rodriguez, 15, of Round Lake Beach, suffered a gunshot wound to the torso, according to Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek.
Rodriguez was transported by ambulance to an area hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Facklam said the Lake County Major Crime Task Force was called to investigate.
A bullet hole was located in the window of the home where Rodriguez had been sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner.
Investigators used a laser sight to determine the trajectory the bullet was fired, Facklam said.
They determined the gun had been fired from Greenview Park across the street from the home. A shell casing was recovered.
“We know that guns when fired the bullets go in straight lines. In this case, for the bullet to travel across the park, across the street and through the victim’s window and into the victim — there is only one explanation for that,” Facklam said.
“That is when the defendant entered the park and fired the firearm, for whatever reason, he was pointing that gun directly at the victim’s residence and the row of houses across the street,” Facklam said.
Facklam argued that Poole Jr. would “have every reason to know” that people would be in their homes at 9:10 p.m. when he allegedly fired the gun.
Investigators located video footage from a residential complex a few blocks away on Golfview Drive.
Facklam said the video showed Poole Jr. with another person leaving the complex just before 9 p.m. heading in the direction of his residence, which is located south of the park in the 1400 block of Kildeer Drive.
Additional video showed a subject believed to be Poole Jr. continuing west on Golfview Drive before turning onto Kildeer Drive where the park is located, Facklam said.
Poole Jr. told investigators he had not left his house since the afternoon on the day of the incident.
They showed Poole Jr. a surveillance image and he identified himself in the photograph.
Facklam said video from Poole Jr.’s phone showed him entering his residence just a few minutes after the shooting occurred.
A search warrant was obtained for Poole Jr.’s home and an article search was conducted by Lake County Sheriff’s Canine Drako, who located a pistol in the backyard of the residence hidden in a pile of brush.
A crime lab analysis showed the gun recovered fired the spent projectile and the shell casing recovered, Facklam said.
Poole Jr. was arrested following the search warrant and has been held in the Lake County Jail since his arrest.
Lake County Major Crime Task Force Spokesman Christopher Covelli said at the time of the incident that it did not appear the child was the intended target of the shooting.
In addition to the surveillance video used in the case, Poole Jr. was also placed in the area using data from his electronic monitoring bracelet, which he had been placed on months prior for a separate criminal case.
Court records show Poole Jr. was charged in July 2023 with armed robbery with a firearm, theft by threatening and multiple counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon for an incident in Round Lake Beach.
Poole Jr. pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated robbery, a Class 1 felony, in exchange for his other charges being dismissed in that case.
A negotiated plea agreement resulted in Poole Jr. being sentenced in February to three years of periodic imprisonment — which was actually electronic home monitoring — and 300 hours of public service, in addition to 48 months of probation.
He was also ordered not to possess any weapons and not consume alcohol or illegal drugs.
Poole Jr. faced up to 45 years in prison if he was convicted of the most serious charge of robbery while armed with a firearm, which is a Class X felony.
The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office filed a petition to detain Poole Jr. in the murder case following his arrest, arguing there were no conditions of release that mitigate the threat he poses to the public.
A detention hearing for Poole Jr. had been delayed several times as the man worked to hire an attorney before the hearing was finally held on Wednesday, over a month later.
Attorney John Radosevich, who is representing Poole Jr., argued in court that prosecutors cannot prove Poole Jr. possessed or even fired the gun.
Radosevich said prosecutors have “a lot of suspicion, a lot of smoke, but there’s not a fire.”
Lake County Judge Theodore Potkonjak granted the state’s petition and ordered Poole Jr. held in custody pending trial.
The judge said that placing Poole Jr. on electronic monitoring pending trial would not allow him to be properly monitored.
Potkonjak said that in a “perfect world,” Poole Jr. would not have been out of custody at the time the murder occurred if the man was actually serving periodic imprisonment he was given in his prior robbery case.
Due to a staffing shortage in the Lake County Jail, defendants who receive periodic imprisonment are currently placed on electronic home monitoring.
The judge said prosecutors knew when they negotiated the plea deal that Poole Jr. would not be in periodic imprisonment and would be on electronic home monitoring, which allows for him to leave his home two days a week under the Illinois SAFE-T Act.
Potkonjak called it “mind-boggling” that state law allows for people on electronic home monitoring to leave their homes.
“The court does find by clear and convincing evidence that he committed the offense. There are no conditions or combination of conditions that could ensure the safety of anyone out there,” the judge said in his ruling denying Poole Jr.’s release.