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 rescue her. The officer shot him.
Romaine Heath, 45, remains in custody and is expected to be ordered into treatment at a secure mental health facility. A follow-up hearing is scheduled for June 18 before Judge Nastosha Toller, who conducted 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, then entered a nearby home where he did not know anyone. Two women living there tried to coax him out, hoping he would leave. He didn’t.
Heath closed the front door, prompting one woman to retreat to a bedroom and brace herself against the door to keep him out. He grabbed knives from the kitchen, forced his way into the room, and threatened to kill her if she made noise, prosecutors said. He then shoved a dresser against the door as a barricade.
When Chicago police officers arrived and made their way into the bedroom, Heath allegedly wrapped 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 ordering Heath to drop the knife. Heath allegedly lunged at them, stabbing one officer in the shoulder, cutting his head, and cracking the lens of his glasses with the knife. That officer reportedly fired four shots, striking Heath in the elbow and abdomen. Investigators later recovered three knives at the scene.
Prosecutors played body camera footage during the trial. A spectator in the courtroom called the video, which captured officers pulling the woman to safety, “great.”
Speaking of Toller, the spectator said, “She was awesome, very fair. Her words [were] guilty on all counts but not guilty due to being insane while committing these crimes.”
While the city generally releases body camera footage of police shootings within 60 days, Judge Michael Kane in 2023 ordered the footage and all other city records related to the case sealed until the criminal matter is 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 of a peace officer, and unlawful restraint.
