A Lake County jury was deliberating Thursday in the case of a Round Lake Beach man who shot twin teen brothers who had stolen his Camaro.
Lynell Glover’s trial went to jurors after three hours of closing arguments Thursday from Glover’s defense attorney, who argued that he acted in self-defense, and prosecutors who said he fired at the brothers as they ran away from him.
Glover is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Anthony Awad, 17, and aggravated battery against Awad’s identical twin. Jurors could make an alternative finding of second-degree murder against Glover.
Glover shot the brothers in the early morning hours on Jan. 3, 2021, along Illinois Route 12 in Volo, after an acquaintance phoned Glover to tell him he’d seen Glover’s stolen Camaro at a gas station.
Glover drove over, saw the car and followed it until it either stalled or ran out of gas along Route 12. Minutes later, he shot the brothers.
Glover testified Monday that he was attacked by the brothers, one of whom produced the gun. Attorney James Schwarzbach, in closing arguments, stressed Glover’s version of the confrontation.
“This man was struggling for his life,” Schwarzbach said.
Prosecutors, though, said the evidence pointed to Glover firing at the Awads as they ran away from him.
The gun belonged to Glover’s wife, and she testified that she had left the pistol in Camaro’s glovebox when the car was stolen several days before the shooting.
Assistant state’s attorneys Jeffery Facklam and Lauren Callinan, though, said the account was not credible, and said Glover had brought the gun with him.
“His entire reason for shooting them was because these two boys were running away,” Callinan said in her closing argument.
The prosecutors replayed a videotaped police interview in which Glover said he wanted to keep the youths from running away, and called the shooting, “a spur of the moment thing.”
“The defendant on Jan. 3. 2021, was a vigilante who took the law into his own hands,” Callinan said.
