GOP Challenger Attacks Incumbent Democrat Over 'Sweetheart Plea Deal' For Shorbonia Poole

WAUKEGAN, IL — As the race to become Lake County's next top prosecutor heats up, first-term Democratic Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart is facing accusations of being soft on crime from Republican challenger Mary Cole over a plea deal with a Round Lake Beach man who now faces murder charges.

Shorbonia Poole, 19, is being held Lake County Jail awaiting trial on charges of first-degree murder and unlawful possession of a felon in connection with the fatal shooting of Valeria Rodriguez, a 15-year-old Round Lake High School student struck and killed by a stray bullet while inside her house.

At the time of the slaying, Poole was on electronic home monitoring and probation after he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge earlier this year.

He had been facing charges of armed robbery, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and theft over a July 2023 incident, a charge for which a conviction could bring a sentence of more than two decades in state prison.

In that incident, Poole was accused of robbing a woman at gunpoint at a Round Lake Beach gas station in front of her children.

In a negotiated plea in February, Rinehart's office reduced the armed robbery charge to the lessor offense of aggravated robbery, accepting a sentence that law Poole released from jail after spending about 7 months behind bars.

Cole said the case is a clear example of Rinehart making the county more dangerous for residents because he "ignores violent crimes and offers dangerous offenders plea deals most prosecutors wouldn't even consider appropriate."

In a statement, Cole suggested the state's attorney's office was responsible for Rodriguez's death.

"If appropriately tried and sentenced for his previous crimes, Mr. Poole would be in the penitentiary, and a young, innocent 15-year-old girl would be alive today," Cole said. "Rinehart’s deal with Poole opened the door for him to kill a young, innocent Round Lake High School student who did nothing to deserve what happened to her."

The Lake Bluff Republican said the Democratic incumbent had failed to protect the community and emboldened violent criminals instead.

"It deeply saddens me to know the murder of Valeria Rodriguez could have been prevented by a competent State’s Attorney in Lake County," Cole said. "Lake County residents deserve better."

Related: Here's Who's Running For Lake County State's Attorney In November 2024

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Rinehart told Patch that he was not personally involved in approving Poole's plea deal, but his office's policies and practices were properly followed.

"My policy is to trust experienced prosecutors and consider all factors, including the victim's input, the defense attorney's input, and sometimes the judge's input," Rinehart said, noting that the prosecutor who handled Poole's armed robbery case has more than 20 years of trial experience.

"They are consulting with the victim and thinking about what a trial, you know what a trial looks like. It is true that he was masked, and it is also true that he did not give a statement," Rinehart said, discussing the strength of the 2023 case against Poole, who was at the time an 18-year old first-time offender.

"I'm not minimizing it," he said, "but it was a quick crime where he put the gun on the woman at the gas station, took the money and left while masked."

Rinehart said four years of probation with three years of electronic home monitoring was an appropriate sentence. He pointed to data from 2018, before he took over from his Republican predecessor Mike Nerheim, indicating that between 30 and 40 percent of armed robbery charges result in sentences of probation.

Rinehart told Patch he was unaware of any other case since the elimination of cash bail in Illinois where someone on electronic home monitoring in Lake County, which he described as a stronger system of supervised release than the Illinois Department of Correction's, was charged with a violent crime.

The state's attorney pushed back on his Republican challenger's description of the plea agreement as a "sweatheart" deal.

"The process was followed. The right people were in place to review everything. In light of the consultation with the victim, the detective and the supervisor, I think that the process was followed," Rinehart said. "And we have to trust those prosecutors, because I'm not there in all of those cases. I certainly understand that I'm selecting the supervisors and selecting the prosecutors to be there so I certainly appreciate that, this just wasn't one that I happened to be deciding on."

Read more:

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• Girl, 15, Dead After Stray Bullet Hits Her Inside Home: Police