A Cook County judge on Friday found a Chicago man not guilty by reason of insanity on all charges stemming from a 2022 home invasion in which he held a woman at knifepoint before stabbing a police officer who came to her rescue. The officer shot him.
Romaine Heath, 45, remains in custody and is expected to receive treatment in a secure mental health facility. A follow-up hearing is scheduled for June 18 before Judge Nastosha Toller, who presided over the trial.
In December 2022, prosecutors said Heath visited an acquaintance in the 9900 block of South Wentworth Avenue on the city’s Far South Side and then entered a nearby home where he knew no one. Two women who lived there tried to persuade him, hoping he would leave. He didn’t.
Heath closed the front door, prompting a woman to retreat into a bedroom and brace herself against the door to keep him out. He grabbed knives from the kitchen, entered the room and threatened to kill her if she made noise, prosecutors said. He then pushed a dresser against the door as a barricade.
When Chicago police officers arrived and entered the bedroom, Heath allegedly put his arm around the woman and pressed a butcher knife against her. A second officer entered the room with his gun drawn and ordered Heath to drop the knife while his partner, armed with a Taser, pulled the woman free.
Officers continued to order Heath to drop the knife. Heath allegedly lunged at them, stabbed an officer in the shoulder, cut his head and broke the lens of his glasses with the knife. That officer reportedly fired four shots, striking Heath in the elbow and abdomen. Investigators later found three knives at the scene.
Prosecutors played body camera footage during the trial. An onlooker in the courtroom called the video of officers leading the woman to safety “amazing.”
Speaking of Toller, the onlooker said: ‘She was great, very honest. Her words [were] guilty on all counts, but not guilty because he was insane during the commission of these crimes.
While the city typically releases body camera footage of police shootings within 60 days, Judge Michael Kane ordered in 2023 that the footage and all other city documents related to the case be sealed until the criminal case was resolved.
Heath was charged with attempted murder, two counts of home invasion with a dangerous weapon, home invasion causing injury, aggravated armed kidnapping, aggravated assault on a peace officer and unlawful restraint.
