WOODSTOCK Four men charged with first-degree murder in connection with a May 27 home invasion were trying to steal cash from a rural McHenry couple after a former co-worker had been fired from the couple's business, investigators said.
Court documents filed by detectives provide more details about what happened the night Donald Jouravleff, a 52-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran, was shot and killed. Authorities previously had released little information about what happened in the home that night.
Affidavits show that two men coaxed someone to answer the door by knocking, and when Jouravleff opened the door, he was shot multiple times. His wife, Donna Mills, heard gunshots, so she tried to hide and called police.
Mills later said she believed that what happened was in retaliation for the firing of an employee. During further investigations, police bugged a friend of one of the suspects and received several tips through Crime Stoppers, all of which eventually led to the arrest of four men.
Adam Morris, 44, of McCullom Lake; Byron Howard, 36, of Wonder Lake; Charles A. Campo, 31, of McHenry; and Jared J. Fox, 25, of Wonder Lake were arrested in June in connection with Jouravleff's death. Officials have said Jouravleff later died from complications from a gunshot wound after being shot that night.
Prosecutors have filed an 87-count indictment against the four men. All have pleaded not guilty. Defense lawyers for each of the men declined to comment Friday. Mills could not be reached for comment.
Mills spoke with police about the incident. She said she and Jouravleff were sleeping on the second floor when they heard a knock at the door about 1 a.m., according to court documents.
Mills said that while her husband went downstairs to answer the door, she looked out the bedroom window and saw someone by the bushes near her front door. Mills told police she heard him open the door, but she didn't hear anyone talking. She then heard a pop, which she said sounded like a cap gun, and heard her husband moaning and yelling for help, according to court documents.
Mills called 911 from her bedroom. A man came into the room and disconnected her call while she was on the phone with 911 operators, according to court documents.
She said the man pointed a black semi-automatic gun at her and said, "You're going to be OK, just stay still." Mills told investigators that the man asked her where the money was in the house. While they were talking, another man came upstairs, and the two men took Mills to the basement, according to court documents.
In the basement, she gave the two men the money she had. It wasn't clear from court records how much money was taken. The men then asked once more whether she had any more money in the house. Once she told them she did not, she returned to the first floor. Mills told police she found Jouravleff lying on the floor near the front door bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds, according to court documents.
She also said her husband told her that when he answered the door, one of the men said they were there because a former co-worker recently had been fired, according to court documents. The co-worker has not been charged in connection with the incident.
Mills told police she had fired a man from her moving business, A. Best Movers Inc., shortly before the home invasion because $3,000 was missing and she thought he had taken it, according to court documents. She also said she thought the two men who came to her home knew she had money there because they had an employee meeting the day before.
During that meeting, another employee gave her a large amount of money from jobs he had done the week before, according to court documents. Morris was one of the employees at the meeting, according to court records.
Prosecutors have declined to say who is accused of shooting Jouravleff, but Morris is the only person charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm.
The indictment accuses Morris of "knowingly [discharging] a firearm in the direction of Donald Jouravleff," according to court documents.
Cellphone records also show a phone call between Morris and Fox about 1 a.m. May 27, the day of the shooting, near the area of West Davis Avenue.
Further investigations also found that Fox went missing for a few days after his mother told him police wanted to speak with him. During that time, he called a friend and told him that he had given a friend a ride where the home invasion was and parked down the street, according to court documents.
Fox told the friend that he heard a noise shortly after parking the truck and found out it was gunshots. The friend told police that his story changed several times over the next week. At one point, Fox said he drove two friends, and then he said he wasn't even there, according to court documents.
Fox and Campo each face 10 counts of first-degree murder, two counts of home invasion, two counts of armed robbery, two counts of robbery and one count of burglary.
Days later Fox spoke with the same friend and admitted that he drove them to the area and "knew something was going down," according to court documents. That conversation was recorded by detectives, and Fox was pulled over June 13 and subsequently arrested.
A neighbor of Howard and Fox told police that she spoke with Howard's girlfriend shortly after the incident. She said Howard and Fox were involved in the home invasion, and she thought they had targeted the house because they thought Jouravleff was a heroin dealer, and they were looking for drugs or money, according to court documents.
Howard faces 10 counts of first-degree murder, two counts of home invasion, two counts of armed robbery, one count of being an armed habitual criminal, two counts of robbery, one count of burglary and one count of possession of a weapon by a felon.
Howard also is believed to have been armed with a gun at the time of the home invasion, according to the indictment.
Howard's girlfriend told the neighbor that Howard and Fox burned the clothes and masks they were wearing, according to court documents.
All four remain in McHenry County Jail in lieu of posting their respective bonds. Campo and Morris are being held on $5 million bonds, and Fox and Howard are being held on $2.5 million bonds.