Prosecutors have dismissed murder charges against one of two brothers who were charged with the murder of a restaurant owner in Waukegan during a gender reveal party.
Iziah T. Gonzalez, 21, of Round Lake, and Jordan Roque, 16, of Waukegan, were both charged last month with one count of first-degree murder.
A Lake County grand jury was presented evidence and returned an indictment on Wednesday charging the two with three counts of first-degree murder.
The charges stemmed from the fatal stabbing of Joshua Kirkwood, 51, of Waukegan.
Kirkwood was stabbed multiple times and rushed to the hospital late in the evening on February 8.
The incident occurred at 41 14 Forty One Fourteen Steaks and Seafood, 2120 North Green Bay Road in Waukegan, which Kirkwood owned.
Prosecutors previously said Gonzalez and his brother worked together to commit the murder, with Roque being the one who was armed with the knife and committed the actual stabbing.
The two brothers got into an altercation with Kirkwood which led to a physical fight just prior to the stabbing.
On Monday, Gonzalez’s attorney — Mary Cole — filed a motion for the appointment of a special prosecutor in the case and said there was a conflict of interest with the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office prosecuting the case.
Cole said that Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart previously represented Kirkwood in a 2016 domestic battery case that Kirkwood was charged in when Rinehart was a private defense attorney.
Cole said that Rinehart previously acknowledged his conflict in prosecuting the Kirkwood family when he recused himself from prosecuting Joshua Kirkwood’s father, Waukegan Alderman Roudell Kirkwood, who was charged in 2022 with official misconduct.
Also in the motion, Cole argued that there was no direct evidence that Gonzalez knew about his brother’s intent to kill Kirkwood. “[…] just a speculative inference made by the State that he likely knew.”
“There is already concern from Iziah’s family and members of the public that Iziah may be charged with this crime, not based on unbiased evidence alone, but due to Mr. Rinehart’s personal concern, compassion, and close emotional ties to his former client, Joshua Kirkwood,” Cole said.
Shortly after the motion was filed, the state’s attorney’s office sought to dismiss the first-degree murder charges against Gonzalez on Monday.
Lake County Judge Patricia Fix, who is overseeing the case, set a hearing on the matter for Tuesday afternoon, at which time she granted the request to dismiss the charges.
The state’s attorney’s office told Lake and McHenry County Scanner in a statement that they filed the murder charges against Gonzalez without having been able to review the surveillance footage from the restaurant because two employees obstructed the investigation.
The footage has since been recovered and detectives and prosecutors began reviewing “thousands of files and hundreds of videos” from the evening of March 5 to the morning of March 10.
The state’s attorney’s office said they determined there was no evidence that the brothers were working together to stab Kirkwood.
“Instead, the second attacker, Roque, picked up a kitchen knife and jumped into the fight after Mr. Gonzalez shoved Kirkwood. Mr. Gonzalez was never armed, and the video now makes it clear that Gonzalez could not have seen Roque’s knife,” the statement said.
Prosecutors said that the case remains under review and they may still charge Gonzalez for starting the fight.
“We have met repeatedly with the family to keep them informed of the situation. Regarding murder charges, neither felony murder nor accountability are appropriate when a second attacker (Roque) is the only one to have a weapon and there is no evidence of previous plans to attack Mr. Kirkwood together,” the state’s attorney’s office said.
“Our ethical, moral, and legal duties require us to act quickly in the name of justice when we uncover new evidence. We continue to express our condolences to the Kirkwood family and all of those affected by the murder of Josh Kirkwood. Our victim specialists will continue to connect them with services,” the office added.
Veronica Roque, 37, of Waukegan, and Heaven Dominguez, 26, of Vernon Hills, are also charged in connection with the murder.
Veronica Roque, who is the mother of Gonzalez and Jordan Roque, was charged with two counts of obstructing justice and four counts of aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon and Dominguez was charged with one count of obstructing justice.
Prosecutors said the two removed the digital video recorder system from the restaurant following the murder and put it into Veronica Roque’s car, where officers also found two guns.
Jordan Roque, Veronica Roque and Dominguez have all been ordered held in the Lake County Jail.