JoAnn Cunningham

The Crystal Lake mother serving 35 years in prison for killing her 5-year-old son in April 2019 will receive evaluations completed by doctors who examined her in the months following the death.

Writing that JoAnn Cunningham’s constitutional rights were not violated, a McHenry County judge Wednesday dismissed the post-conviction petition filed by the former Crystal Lake mother serving 35 years in prison for killing her 5-year-old son.

A McHenry County judge said Friday he has 90 days to decide whether the post-conviction petition filed by a Crystal Lake woman serving 35 years in prison for killing her 5-year-old son has merit.

The former Illinois Department of Children and Family Services employee accused of putting slain 5-year-old AJ Freund at risk by allowing the boy to remain with his parents will receive copies of the evidence prosecutors have collected so far, a judge ruled Thursday.

The Crystal Lake parents convicted of beating and killing their 5-year-old son could be called to testify in the trials of two former child welfare employees who had contact with the family in 2018, court records show

After 17 months of denying before a McHenry County judge any involvement in the death of his 5-year-old son, AJ Freund, Andrew Freund Sr. pleaded guilty Friday to aggravated battery of a child, involuntary manslaughter and concealment of a homicidal death.

Andrew Freund is scheduled to appear in court again next Friday for a status hearing. Eventually, one of these hearings is likely to announce a plea agreement.

The woman convicted of beating and killing her 5-year-old son, AJ Freund, was transferred Thursday to Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln to serve her 35-year prison sentence.

A plea deal between the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office and the father of slain 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy AJ Freund could be on its way, the man’s attorney said in court Thursday.

In the past 15 months, the Crystal Lake home where a 5-year-old boy was beaten to death has been leveled, his mother has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for first-degree murder of her son and the boy’s father awaits trial.

Thirty-five years just isn’t enough. JoAnn Cunningham made her son AJ Freund's life hell from the start, born addicted to heroin. And she ended it in the most cruel and inhumane way imaginable.

At Thursday’s sentencing hearing for JoAnn Cunningham, the Crystal Lake mother who admitted to killing her 5-year-old son, a foster parent said all that Cunningham had to do was ask for help and the boy would have been alive today.

The Northwest Herald will be providing live updates from Thursday's sentencing hearing for JoAnn Cunningham in the death of her son, AJ Freund. Reporters Amanda Marrazzo and Katie Smith, along with Editor Jon Styf, will update throughout the day.

Facing up to six decades in prison, JoAnn Cunningham – the mother who pleaded guilty to killing her 5-year-old son last year inside their Crystal Lake home – is expected to learn her fate this week.

A hearing to determine the prison sentence for a Crystal Lake mother who pleaded guilty to beating and killing her 5-year-old son, AJ Freund, is expected to begin at 9 a.m. Thursday.