Ex-jailhouse informant facing New Lenox home invasion charge also accused of Joliet crash

A former jailhouse informant is accused of a hit-and-run crash in Joliet on the same day he allegedly carried out an armed home invasion in New Lenox while wearing a Halloween mask, court records show.

The hit-and-run crash involving Brian McDaniel, 61, of Joliet, occurred at 11:17 a.m. April 16 on Plainfield Road near Connecticut Avenue, Joliet Police Sgt. Dwayne English said.

McDaniel’s vehicle struck the driver side of a camper towed by a pickup truck, English said.

McDaniel initially stopped and spoke with the other driver, but then he drove away without providing information, English said.

He was issued multiple traffic citations for offenses such as driving on a suspended license and leaving the scene of a crash.

Later that day, McDaniel allegedly wore a Halloween mask and tried to get inside a 74-year-old man’s residence in New Lenox by claiming that he was a police officer, police and prosecutors said.

The man asked to see McDaniel’s badge but then opened the door when McDaniel threatened to break it down, prosecutors said.

McDaniel allegedly brandished a pistol and demanded the man’s gold, prosecutors said. The man told police that he once had about $5,000 to $6,000 worth of gold in his house, but he sold it.

The man reported that the only person who knew of his gold was his girlfriend, who is McDaniel’s friend, prosecutors said.

McDaniel was accused of hitting the man with a gun when he said he had no gold, prosecutors said. The man then offered McDaniel his jewelry, silver coins and his dead wife’s necklaces, prosecutors said.

The victim told police that he suspected McDaniel was the perpetrator of the crime.

McDaniel is facing charges of home invasion and aggravated battery related to the incident.

McDaniel was the jailhouse informant in a 2012 murder-for-hire case against former attorney Robert Gold-Smith, 62. The two were fellow inmates.

McDaniel agreed to wear an audio device that prosecutors claimed recorded Gold-Smith offering McDaniel $5,000 to kill his ex-wife.

Former Will County Judge Daniel Rozak found Gold-Smith guilty of the murder-for-hire scheme in 2016.

But Gold-Smith successfully appealed his conviction in 2019. His attorneys then motioned to dismiss the case by claiming that McDaniel fabricated the audio recording.

Prosecutors dropped the Gold-Smith case in 2023 because they were unable to meet their burden of proof.

“Everything I accomplished in life went down the drain, all because of the word of one person, an unreliable jailhouse informant,” Gold-Smith said in 2023.

Gold-Smith has a pending federal lawsuit against the Will County Sheriff’s Office detectives who investigated the case.

The April 16 crash in Joliet played a role in the investigation of the New Lenox home invasion.

A Joliet police sergeant noticed that McDaniel, the suspect in the home invasion, also was the same suspect in the crash, prosecutors said.

New Lenox police detectives determined that the vehicle involved in the crash was seen on a camera about two blocks away from the home invasion incident, prosecutors said.

McDaniel was questioned about the Joliet crash after his arrest in the New Lenox case. He claimed that the other driver struck him, and he was not involved in the home invasion incident, prosecutors said.

McDaniel allegedly said in his police interview, “I’m going to lawyer up if you can’t put me in that house,” prosecutors said.