Crime & Safety
Driver Convicted In Crash That Killed Teen
A Cook County jury found Adam Grunin guilty in the 2018 collision that killed Alyssa Lendino. 16. of Mount Prospect.
COOK COUNTY, IL — A 32-year-old Wheeling man has been convicted on a reckless homicide charge in connection with the 2018 high-speed crash that killed Alyssa Lendino, 16, a John Hersey High School student and athlete, the Daily Herald reports. A Cook County jury took less than an hour late Friday to deliberate the case before returning the guilty verdict.
The collision at Milwaukee Avenue and Hintz Road on July 21, 2018, happened moments after Adam Grunin collided with another car on Milwaukee Avenue. He was traveling 107 mph in a 40 mph zone when his vehicle smashed into a car slowing to stop for a red light on Milwaukee Avenue.
The car, driven by Alyssa's mother, Michele Lendino, was forced into the intersection where it was hit by a pickup truck, according to the Chicago Tribune. Michele Lendino took the stand Monday, recapping what happened that day.
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“The car stopped,” said Michele Lendino. “I looked around and thought I had lost my whole family. I started screaming.”
Michele as well as Tony Lendino, Alyssa's father, and her sister, Amanda Lendino, 12, were seriously injured in the collision, according to the Chicago Tribune.
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The attorney for Adam Grunin told jurors Monday that his client suffered an epileptic seizure when he lost control of his vehicle and hit the Lendino's car, according to the Daily Herald.
Grunin did not have any drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of the crash. But Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Shilpa Patel said Grunin's actions that day, which changed lives in an instant, showed a "conscious disregard," according to the Daily Herald
"This destruction, this devastation, should not have happened," Patel said.
During the trial, defense attorneys claimed Grunin, who was on anti-seizure medication, suffered an epileptic seizure, which led to the crash, the Daily Herald reports. Dr. Andres Kanner, an authority on neurology and epilepsy from the University of Miami, was called to testify as a defense expert, stating that Grunin lost control of his body prior to the collisions on Milwaukee Avenue.
Grunin is next expected in court on Feb. 19.
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