Skip to content

Trials

Jeremy Lambert was scheduled to plead Tuesday in the Rincon hit-and-run that killed Steven Schmidt.

WTOC reported that Jeremy Lambert was set to enter a plea at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, to a reduced charge in the Oct. 27, 2024, death of Steven Schmidt, 70, according to the City of Rincon Public Information Office. As of WTOC's latest account, the station had reported the hearing as scheduled. It had not reported that a plea was entered. Schmidt was a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel.

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·

A plea hearing on the calendar is not a plea. WTOC's account, updated Tuesday, still described the hearing as set for a lessened charge. The underlying police account is an accusation until a judge accepts a plea or a jury decides the case. This file does not treat a scheduled hearing as a conviction.

WTOC, citing the Rincon Public Information Office, reported that on Oct. 27, 2024, Lambert and his then-girlfriend, Ansleigh Parrish, had been at a Halloween party at the Greenside Bar in the Lost Plantation neighborhood and left around midnight in Lambert's maroon Jeep Cherokee after drinking. Schmidt, 70, a 22-year Air Force veteran, a retired lieutenant colonel, and a former fighter pilot, was walking on Willowpeg Way, the only road out. The office said the Jeep came close to him, he shined a flashlight into the window, and Lambert reversed, swerved onto the shoulder, and hit a mailbox and Schmidt. He stopped briefly and left. Schmidt died eight hours later in surgery at Memorial Hospital. An autopsy listed multiple blunt-impact injuries.

The same office told WTOC that home and neighbor cameras showed Lambert back his Jeep in shortly after the crash and inspect the damage twice before detectives arrived at 2:45 p.m. Confronted about the broken taillight, he denied knowing how it happened. The Effingham County Sheriff's Office searched the house that day and found marijuana being grown inside. Rincon police charged him with murder and aggravated assault. The sheriff's office charged him with manufacturing marijuana. WTOC reported in March 2025 that the counts had been updated to include felony murder and first-degree homicide by vehicle. Tuesday's hearing was described as a plea to a lessened charge. The station did not report the result.

Until a judge accepts a plea, the murder count and the drug count remain charges. A scheduled hearing is a court date. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Share on XEmail

Get the take when the jury is out, the Court drops an order, or we go live.

Shop

Checkout is on Shopify. A few from the rack:

All merch

More on the desk

Trials

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

Randal Moon Jr. was sentenced to 86 years in the Delaware County killing of Michael D. Greer. Ameariss Aponte and Amy Singhas are still charged.

Moon's sentence is the judgment on his conviction. It is not a finding against the co-defendants who have not been tried. WISH-TV reported forensic evidence showed Greer was still alive when the car was set on fire. That evidence was part of the case the jury heard against Moon. Aponte's trial was postponed. Singhas is set for Nov. 16.

Read the take

Reporting noted by WISH-TV, The Star Press, WRTV, and Woof Boom Radio.

Trials

By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer

A DuPage County judge ordered Chance Jamerson held on attempted armed-robbery charges in the Oakbrook Center shooting.

A detention order is a custody ruling. It is not a conviction. Prosecutors say Jamerson set up a robbery of people who brought about $2,000 to buy Swatch watches, and that Hill was shot with his own gun during a struggle. Berlin said Illinois law treats that shooting as justified force against a forcible felony. That is the state's position. A jury has not heard the case.

Read the take

Reporting noted by DuPage County State's Attorney's Office, Daily Herald, FOX 32, and CBS Chicago.