Man stands trial for shooting at ‘Batman’ car near McHenry

A McHenry man was running errands and “minding his own business” when a Waukegan man threw a bottle at his vehicle and, moments later, shot at him with a gun, McHenry County Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Romito said at the man’s bench trial Tuesday.

Romito told Judge Mark Gerhardt in opening statements at the trial of Juan Colon, 29, that he was a passenger in a Lincoln SUV driving along River Road on the afternoon of April 24, 2022, when the driver of the SUV, Joseph Crisara II, 37, of Island Lake, passed the McHenry man’s Ford decorated with Batman decals. As the SUV passed a water bottle was thrown from the SUV at the man’s Ford.

As the SUV turned on Black Partridge Road, the driver of the Ford followed behind it. The driver wanted to get the license plate so he could report the incident to police and ask why Colon threw the bottle, “which he is allowed to do,” Romito said.

When the SUV stopped, with the Ford stopped behind it, Crisara and Colon exited the SUV. They walked toward the Ford, with Colon seen on the Ford’s dash-cam video, shown in court Tuesday, walking toward the Ford’s driver’s side. Although out of range of the camera, Colon allegedly shot a firearm at the driver as the driver, who never exited his vehicle, sprayed Colon with pepper spray, Romito said.

Colon appeared to be shown on the video running back to the SUV, wiping his face and shooting the gun behind him at the Ford two more times. The driver of the Ford, who testified later Tuesday, was not injured.

The video then appeared to show Crisara jump back into the driver’s side of the SUV and Colon struggle to get into the passenger side as Crisara drove off. The video showed Colon making it into the SUV but losing his Nike slide shoe at the scene, which was later recovered by police.

When police arrived, they found a bullet hole on the driver’s side of the Ford between the front and back seat windows, with photos of the damage shown in court. Romito said Colon shot his gun three times.

Colon is charged with attempted first-degree murder, a Class X felony, along with aggravated discharge of a firearm and being a felon possessing or using a firearm, according to Romito and the indictment filed in McHenry County court.

But Colon’s defense attorneys argued that Colon was acting in self-defense because the Ford followed Colon and Crisara, and that Colon thought the driver was holding up a firearm. Assistant Public Defender Kyle Kunz said the driver of the Ford “is not some innocent bystander.”

He “had ample opportunity to avoid a confrontation,” Kunz said in his opening statements.

Kunz said the Ford had a dash cam that could have captured the SUV’s license plate and that the driver could have called 911 and shared that information with police. Crisara stopped the SUV because the driver of the Ford “wouldn’t stop following them,” Kunz said, adding that Crisara then ”pulled over to let [the other driver] drive by.“

The other driver “had every opportunity to continue driving,” Kunz said. “He didn’t have to stop.”

Kunz rejected the state’s claim that this is an attempted murder case but rather a case of self-defense and it was “avoidable.”

The SUV was found five days later at Crisara‘s home, where authorities said they also found large amounts of marijuana and hallucinogenics.

On May 2, 2024, Crisara pleaded guilty to attempted unlawful possession of 2,000 to 5,000 grams of marijuana with intent to deliver. He was sentenced to three years and three months in prison. In exchange, additional, more serious charges were dismissed, including unlawful possession with intent to deliver more than 200 grams of psilocybin, a Class X felony that could have sent him to prison for up to 30 years. Other charges of concealing or aiding a fugitive and obstructing justice in connection with the shooting incident also were dismissed.

Crisara was accused of knowingly concealing evidence by fleeing the scene of the shooting and taking with him the alleged shooter, Colon, and the firearm used, according to the criminal complaint filed in Crisara‘s case.

Colon was arrested more than a month after the shooting in Lake County. At the time police were looking for him, he was considered “armed and dangerous,” authorities said.

Colon has an extensive criminal history dating back to 2012 in Lake County, including convictions of attempted aggravated assault, to which he pleaded guilty following an initial charge of attempted robbery; he also was convicted of criminal damage to state property, unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon and aggravated battery in a public place, which was amended from predatory criminal sexual assault. He also was convicted of battery, according to a petition in McHenry County court.

While in custody at the McHenry County jail, he was charged with two separate cases of criminal damage to government-supported property, according to complaints in the courthouse.

At the time of the shooting, Crisara was on parole for drug-induced homicide in the 2015 death of a Mundelein man, records show.

Closing arguments in Colon’s trial are scheduled for Thursday.