The prosecutor: Facio case was ‘clearly premeditated’
It was all a matter of timing.
At home watching the news with his wife one Friday night in January 2008, Kevin Frey knew almost instantly Angel Facio’s case would be his.
Frey, a young assistant state’s attorney in the Cook County juvenile division, was, because of a weekly rotation, one of the lawyers handling cases where a juvenile was held in custody — since, by law, young offenders had to be in front of a judge within 40 hours of their arrest.
So Frey, at just 30, led the state’s high-profile move to have the 16-year-old’s case transferred to adult court.
Facio’s first-degree murder charge, and the fact that he had attacked a teacher at school, caused the juvenile case to be handled differently than many others.
Reporters, usually barred from juvenile proceedings, were granted handwritten exemptions and allowed inside Judge Paul Stralka’s first-floor courtroom on South Hamilton Avenue in Chicago.
Three years later, Frey, who now works in the office’s conflicts counsel unit, still remembers the bloody crime scene photos he looked over while building his case.
“I remember a doctor saying that he couldn’t even tell where all of the puncture wounds were (on Gilbert) at first because there was so much blood,” he said.
Facio, Frey argued back then, was a dangerous individual who attacked Gilbert for no reason.
“From our perspective, it was clearly premeditated,” he said.
Facio’s defense attorney, James Martin, pointed to a black spiral notebook, found by the teen’s chess coach and turned over to his mother, as a cry for help.
Frey, who also saw the notebook, remembers it revealed thoughts of suicide and depression, but no urge to physically hurt someone.
“There is no doubt that Facio was crying out to be heard,” Frey said in his closing arguments. “But in the process, he hurt an innocent person.”
Citing a chaotic home life and a better opportunity to be rehabilitated through the juvenile system, Stralka moved to keep the case in juvenile court. After that ruling, Facio would plead guilty to attempted murder.
“Juvenile cases are often quick because they’re set up so that the offender can be rehabilitated,” Frey said. “Once he pleaded guilty, the case was going to go fast.”
The state decided to have Gilbert appear in court only once to give a victim impact statement.
“She was already reliving that attack every day,” Frey said. “She had done nothing wrong.”
Gilbert’s voice cracked as she spoke in court. She paused several times to collect herself.
“My carefree attitude has changed. My sense of safety has been affected. I always find myself looking behind me,” she said. “It is always in the back of my mind that he will come and get me when he gets out.”
“I know,” Gilbert concluded, “that he is a juvenile, and being a high school teacher I would be the first to have an open mind and heart. But ... I’m seriously worried he will complete what he started with me and kill someone.”