Crystal Lake man seeks bench trial in young son’s beating death

CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill. (Daily Herald) — A suburban Chicago man charged with last year’s beating death of his 5-year-old son has asked for a judge, not a jury, to decide his fate. Andrew Freund Sr. told McHenry County Judge Robert Wilbrandt that he wants a bench trial during a hearing Thursday. He and the boy’s mother, Joann Cunningham, were charged with first-degree murder in the death of their son, Andrew “AJ” Freund Jr. The boy’s body was found last April in a shallow grave near the family’s Crystal Lake home. Cunningham pleaded guilty to murder in December and is due to be sentenced on April 30.