The Northwest suburbs' biggest crime stories of 2010

Here's a look at 10 of the biggest law enforcement stories in 2010 in the Northwest suburbs.

Five convictions in Hanover Park murders

A wave of murders that prompted fear and angst in residents of Hanover Park in 2009 ended in a wave of convictions in 2010.

The crime wave culminated in a shocking three murders in four days in June 2009, leading to community meetings about the town's gang problem and stepped up policing with aid from other departments.

A year later, it's apparent that the murder wave was an anomaly, not a portent of things to come.

Police were quick to make arrests in all five cases, the underlying causes varied widely, and there hasn't been a murder in the community since — showing just how random the crime can be, which in turn makes it very hard for police to prevent.

Here's a list of those convicted of murder this year:

• Sergio Hernandez, 24, of Aurora, was convicted of murder in the shooting of Rocio Munoz-Ramos, 26, of Elgin, his former girlfriend, as she sat in her car outside the Hanover Park beauty salon where she worked in November 2008. Hernandez was sentenced to 55 years in prison in August and will be eligible for release shortly after his 78th birthday.

• Ronald O'Rourke, 47, of Crystal Lake, was convicted in September of the June 2009 stabbing death of Patricia Howat, 51, in her Hanover Park home. Testimony indicated Howat, an ex-girlfriend, came home and surprised O'Rourke, a crack cocaine addict, after he broke in to rob the home. He hasn't been sentenced yet.

• Rafael Alvarado, 33, of Hanover Park, was convicted of the murder of Norma Favela, 31, and the intentional homicide of her unborn child in her Hanover Park home in June 2009. Testimony indicated Favela was beaten to death with a hammer following an argument. In November, Alvarado was sentenced to a total of 100 years in prison: 60 years for Favela's death and 40 years for the death of the unborn child he had fathered.

• Jahaziel Duron, 17, of Hanover Park, was convicted in November of the stabbing of Diontae Roberts, 23, of Hanover Park, in the yard during a birthday party in June 2009 in Hanover Park. He is yet to be sentenced.

• Jerry Lockhart, 41, of Hanover Park, was convicted in December of the murder of Vatsala Thakkar, 41, of Hanover Park, a mother of three who was stabbed during a November 2008 robbery of a dollar store in Hanover Park. Although Lockhart did not participate in the robbery, prosecutors argued he put a 15 and a 17 year old up to it. He has yet to be sentenced.

Man cut in half still unidentified

The identity of a man whose body was found in two halves earlier this year in Arlington Heights and near Des Plaines still remains a mystery.

DNA testing helped authorities piece together the partial remains to determine they belonged to same person — a white or Hispanic adult male. The partial remains were found in April near an Arlington Heights garbage bin and in May in a Cook County Forest Preserve near Des Plaines.

The lower part of the body was found in a garbage bag April 16 at Marketview Apartments near Dryden Place and Kensington Road in Arlington Heights.

The badly decomposed upper part was discovered May 6 in Lions Woods near Golf and River roads along the south bank of the Des Plaines River.

The only identifiable marks that were found on the lower part of the body are three tattoos, two appearing to be the image of a “joker.”

DNA from the body was submitted to a national database of criminals, but there was no match.

Arlington Heights police, the Cook County sheriff's office and the Cook County Forest Preserve police are working to identify the man. Anyone with information is asked to call Arlington Heights police at (847) 368-5300.

Hoffman, Mount Prospect kids caught in the crossfire

It was a close call for two suburban families whose children were caught in the crossfire of random gun violence this year.

Hoffman Estates single mom Martha Mendoza was panicked after her 12-year-old son was seriously wounded in a drive-by shooting on the evening of March 10.

Mendoza, her youngest children and her daughter's 16-year-old boyfriend were watching television when the kids decided to get treats from a nearby 7-Eleven in Schaumburg.

As the children crossed Bode Road, someone in a passing vehicle started firing, hitting Mendoza's 12-year-old son in the arm and abdomen, and her daughter's boyfriend in the torso, lower abdomen and legs. Another bullet grazed her daughter. Her son spent three weeks in the hospital.

In a similar scenario, when the shooting started in a Mount Prospect neighborhood the evening of April 2, 8-year-old Ader Torres, his two sisters, Daniela, 5, and Marylin, 2, and some friends were in the back yard of their home playing football.

Three to five shots were fired from behind their apartment building on Boxwood Drive. A stray bullet grazed Ader's face, embedding itself in his left cheek. Ader's mother, Rosario Solis, rushed her son, a second-grader at Euclid Elementary School, to the hospital, where his injuries didn't require immediate surgery.

Police haven't made an arrest in either shooting.

Fall convictions in April's ‘Dial-A-Rock' drug bust

In April, law enforcement officials in the Northwest suburbs, led by Arlington Heights police and the Drug Enforcement Agency, arrested more than 20 people after an eight-month investigation of cocaine trafficking in the Northwest suburbs that was nicknamed “Dial-A-Rock.”

Prosecutors say the ring handled 100 transactions a day for about 10 years, moving about half a pound of cocaine worth about $50,000 every couple of days. In September, four of those charged pleaded guilty, including Ector Cortez, 41, of Rolling Meadows, who admitted running the operation. He pleaded to a charge of criminal drug conspiracy and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Adrian Peregrino-Garcia, 22, of Schaumburg, also pleaded guilty to criminal drug conspiracy and received a similar sentence, while Julio Zenteno, 31, of Mount Prospect, and Carlos Ruiz, 21, of Arlington Heights, who authorities described as “couriers” or delivery men pleaded guilty to lesser charges and were each sentenced to six years.

Streamwood cop fired after video of beating

A Streamwood police officer with a stellar record experienced a cataclysmic reversal of fortune in his professional career after being accused of police brutality and then fired in the spring.

A squad car camera captured video of Streamwood police Cpl. James Mandarino, 41, striking motorist Ronald Bell, 28, multiple times with his baton after a traffic stop in Bell's own driveway in the early hours of March 28.

Bell was hospitalized after other officers and paramedics responded to the scene.

Mandarino was immediately placed on administrative leave, even as Cook County prosecutors prepared to file charges of aggravated battery and official misconduct, both felonies.

An internal investigation led to Mandarino's firing June 18. His next court date is Jan. 24.

Though village officials denounced the behavior seen on the squad-car video from early days, Mandarino's fellow rank-and-file officers organized a fundraiser to help pay his legal bills.

Mandarino's criminal attorney has never stated his client's side of the case publicly, but police union attorney Richard Reimer was present during the statement Mandarino was required to make during the internal investigation.

“He was able to clearly and logically explain, frame by frame, what he was doing and why he was doing it, based on his training,” Reimer said.

Arlington Heights man killed in police standoff

One fateful August evening would forever change the lives of Arlington Heights couple Jennifer and Daniel Moreno.

A domestic disturbance at the couple's home ended in a shootout with Arlington Heights police which left Daniel Moreno in critical condition. Moreno, 28, died three days later of his injuries in the first shooting by village police in decades.

During the nearly 20-minute standoff, Jennifer Moreno was holed up in a neighbor's basement with one bloodied son in paramedics' hands and the other back home in the care of her armed husband.

Her 9-year-old boy was treated for a cut on his head that required stitches. A 1-year-old child that remained inside the home during the shooting was not injured.

Police said Moreno was shot once in self-defense after he shot at police at least twice from inside the home. Jennifer Moreno disputed authorities' account and called the shooting unnecessary.

Hearing set for Schaumburg teen in hammer attack

The case of a 15-year-old Schaumburg girl accused of putting her neighbor in a coma by attacking him with a hammer last March has been continued to Jan. 4.

The teen, formerly of the 100 block of Pickwick Drive, is charged with attempted murder, armed robbery and aggravated battery in the March 29 attack against 58-year-old Rajesh Thakkar who lived in her building.

Thakkar, who was in a coma after the attack and hospitalized for several months, is now recovering at home after brain and eye surgeries. He has lost vision in his right eye, speaks only sparingly, can walk only short distances and remains in physical therapy.

The girl has been under psychiatric evaluation due to her behavior in custody. The Cook County state's attorney's office is likely to file a motion Jan. 4 to move the case from juvenile court to adult court.

The girl's sister, 19-year-old Latifah Johnson, pleaded guilty on Aug. 12 to a charge of obstruction of justice for cleaning up Thakkar's blood from the crime scene before police and paramedics arrived. Johnson received a sentence of four months in jail and two years of probation.

Double murder-suicide in Elk Grove Village

Perhaps, the grisliest crime story of the year was the Elk Grove Village double murder-suicide in which Kenneth Johnson shot and killed his wife and stepson before turning a rifle on himself.

Johnson left a two-page suicide note revealing disturbing details of the financial woes that led the 47-year-old unemployed Elk Grove Village plumber and carpenter to shoot his wife, Nanette Johnson, 48, and her 24-year-old son, Kenneth Sova, a 2004 graduate of Elk Grove High School, multiple times last September. Sova left behind a 2-year-old son, Nicholas.

Johnson called his brother immediately after the killings to tell him what he had done and was about to do next. He then drove a minivan to a soccer field across the street from the condominium complex where the family lived, set the van on fire and shot himself in the head.

Johnson's suicide note said he had been out of work for four years and his unemployment compensation had run out. Police said he appeared to have carefully planned the murders.

Insanity the ruling in murders of two elderly women

Court proceedings this year indicate that insanity was behind the shocking deaths of two women in their 70s, who were found murdered in their homes in the Northwest suburbs in a two-day period in December 2008.

Albert Rumlow, 75, of Palatine, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the stabbing of his wife, Janet, 74. In April, he was remanded to the state Department of Human Services for 60 years. He is being treated at the Elgin Mental Health Center for treatment of a major depressive disorder.

“He is fortunate to have the love and support of his family, neighbors and friends, which is aiding him in his recovery,” his attorney, Thomas J. Tyrrell, said at the time.

Paul Castronovo, 45, was remanded in November to the state Department of Human Services for up to 60 years. A month earlier, he had been found not guilty by reason of insanity in the strangulation of his mother Mary Castronovo, 76, in the home they shared. A delusional disorder made Castronovo believe his mother was possessed by the devil and intended to harm her children, medical reports indicated.

Castronovo's family “is happy he's not in a penitentiary and that hs is where he should be, in a mental health facility,” said Jim Mullenix, his attorney.

Ex-Hanover Twp. welfare director battling theft charges

Aurea Picasso, the 45-year-old former Hanover Township welfare services director, who was scheduled to be released from prison in October, is now battling charges she stole nearly $200,000 from township welfare funds for personal use.

Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Bill Conway said that as welfare director from 2003 to 2009, Picasso stole $124,560 using the township's checkbooks, the township food pantry checkbook, and an additional checking account provided by the Salvation Army for emergency situations.

She used the money to pay for dental work, car insurance, cell phones and even bills for her daughter's “Sweet 16” birthday party, prosecutors said.

Picasso is also accused of enrolling family, friends and others for welfare benefits through the township. When those checks were processed, she would forge signatures and deposit the funds into her own bank account, allowing her to steal an additional $68,550, prosecutors said.

In 2009, Picasso was sentenced to three years for identity theft unrelated to the township. In 2003, she received 24 months probation for state benefits fraud.

Picasso's next court date is Jan. 14. If convicted, Picasso faces between six and 30 years in prison.