Trial Gets Underway In High-Speed Crash That Killed Teen

COOK COUNTY, IL — The trial for a 32-year-old Wheeling man charged with reckless homicide in connection with a high-speed crash that killed a John Hersey High School student last summer got underway this week. The attorney for Adam Grunin told jurors Monday that his client suffered an epileptic seizure when he lost control of his vehicle and hit a car stopped at Milwaukee Avenue and Hintz Road in Wheeling on July 21, 2018, according to the Daily Herald.

He was traveling 107 mph in a 40 mph zone at the time of the crash, authorities said. The car stopped at a red light was driven by Michele Lendino — the mother of 16-year-old Alyssa Lendino who was also in the car and was killed in the crash. Tony Lendino, Alyssa's father, and her sister, Amanda Lendino, 12, were seriously injured, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Michele Lendino took the stand Monday, recapping what happened that day. She said the car spun around after the initial collision and then entered the intersection where it was hit by a pickup truck, according to the article.

“The car stopped,” said Michele Lendino. “I looked around and thought I had lost my whole family. I started screaming.”

Prosecutors claim Grunin was fleeing the scene of a crash that happened moments before he slammed into the Lendinos' vehicle. In that collision, he hit the rear driver's side of a southbound car driven by Angelicao Breto, according to the Daily Herald. Her two young children were in the backseat.

Grunin, who worked third shift at a hotel, was on anti-seizure medication at the time of the crash but did not have any driving restrictions, according to media reports. Alyssa Lendino was set to enter her junior year at Hersey High School.

The trial resumes Tuesday.

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