A man has been sentenced to eight years in prison for pistol-whipping a woman and then committing a drive-by shooting with two children in his car in Marengo.
The Marengo Police Department responded around 9 p.m. on October 26, 2023, to the 500 block of Kennedy Drive for a report of a person with a gun.
The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office was requested to the scene due to the seriousness of the incident, according to Marengo Police Department Sgt. Andrew Kjellgren.
Officers discovered multiple bullet holes in the exterior of the residence and were unable to make contact with anyone inside.
Kjellgren said it was learned that nobody was inside the residence by the time police arrived.
The Belvidere Police Department responded to an address in their city a short time later and located a female victim suffering from injuries believed to have occurred at the shooting location in Marengo.
The injuries were determined to be non-life-threatening, Kjellgren said.
Investigators learned that an altercation occurred involving at least one male suspect and the female victim.
During the altercation, the man, identified as Jacob Mains, 25, of Belvidere, pistol-whipped the woman and left the residence.
Kjellgren said Mains got into the driver seat of a vehicle and drove back past the residence, at which time he fired multiple rounds at the residence.
Mains fled the scene. Two children, a 13-year-old and a two-year-old, were inside Mains’ vehicle at the time of the shooting, according to a criminal complaint.
The Marengo Police Department arrested Mains at his residence in the 600 block of McKinley Avenue in Belvidere, Kjellgren said.
Mains was charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and two counts of child endangerment.
Jennifer Luttrell, 36, who lives at the residence where the shooting occurred, was also inside the car with Mains at the time of the shooting and is the mother of the two child passengers, Kjellgren said.
Luttrell was arrested and released from the police department after being charged with obstructing justice, a Class 4 felony, and three counts of child endangerment, a Class A misdemeanor.
A criminal complaint said Luttrell told detectives she was not present and did not know about a shooting at her residence despite being in the vehicle while shots were being fired.
Court records show Mains entered into a negotiated plea deal with the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office on Tuesday.
He pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated discharge of a firearm at a building, a Class 1 felony.
In exchange, he was sentenced to eight years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. It will be served at 85%.
The plea was accepted by McHenry County Judge Tiffany Davis.
The case against Luttrell remains active and a jury trial is scheduled for December 9.