2nd man guilty in 2017 McHenry County home invasion, murder over $3K
A McHenry County jury this week convicted a second man for his role in a 2017 home invasion, robbery and fatal shooting of a 52-year-old Air Force veteran.
Byron Howard, 37, of Wonder Lake was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder in the May 27, 2017, shooting death of Donald Jouravleff in his house on the 1800 block of Davis Avenue in unincorporated McHenry County.
Howard also was convicted Monday of home invasion, armed robbery, burglary, being an armed habitual criminal and unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon after a weeklong trial before Judge Sharon Prather. He faces a prison term of 56 to 120 years when sentenced May 24, according to prosecutors.
In March, a jury convicted Adam C. Morris of two counts of first-degree murder, armed robbery, burglary and possession of a weapon by a felon. Morris, 46, will be sentenced May 3 and faces 46 to 129 years in prison.
At that trial, which also was presided over by Prather, prosecutors argued Morris, who was an employee of a moving company owned by Jouravleff's wife, Heather Mills, hatched a plan to rob the couple after meeting with Mills the previous day and seeing $3,000 in the couple's basement.
Morris and three other men, who all had been drinking, went to Jouravleff's house at 1 a.m. Jouravleff was shot twice after he answered the door, according to prosecutors.
Mills was in a second-floor bedroom and tried to call 911, but a masked man - who prosecutors said was Howard - armed with a handgun ran upstairs and disconnected her phone. Howard put a gun to her head and brought her downstairs. Morris took her to the basement and demanded the money, prosecutors said.
The other men charged with murder in the case - Charles A. Campo, 33, of McHenry, and Jared J. Fox, 27, of Wonder Lake - testified against Morris. Campo and Fox acknowledged that prosecutors would drop murder charges and they would plead guilty to felony aggravated battery with a firearm and receive a sentence of less than 10 years in prison.
Campo and Fox are being held at the McHenry County jail and are next due in court May 1.