Trial begins in case of 1999 Lisle sexual assault

A retired Lisle police officer recalled Tuesday how the 63-year-old female victim of a vicious sexual assault trembled as she identified her attacker in two separate photos on Feb. 9, 1999, just two days after the attack.

"She was terrified and frightened," retired officer Daniel Fitzgerald testified during the first day of the trial for the man accused of the attack.

Roberto Noyola, 41, evaded capture in the days after the attack, prosecutors said, as he fled to Chicago and then Kentucky before heading to Mexico and eventually to Texas.

But a DNA match discovered in late 2013, as Noyola was in custody in Texas on unrelated charges, led police right to him. He was extradited to DuPage County in March 2014.

Assistant State's Attorney Jennifer Lindt said Noyola knocked on the woman's apartment patio door early in the morning and then forced his way inside and assaulted her.

"He pushed himself into her home and raped her in virtually every way possible," Lind said during her opening argument. "Then he left her injured and victimized on the floor of her own home, but not before threatening her if she called police."

Lindt said the injured woman went to a neighbor's home and the neighbor helped her get medical treatment.

"The defendant is 100 percent responsible for the home invasion and rape of (the victim)," Lindt told Judge Robert Miller. "And he is 100 percent guilty."

The victim was still alive when Noyola was arrested, but she later died, in January 2015, at the age of 78.

Noyola, who is representing himself and using a Spanish interpreter, declined to make an opening argument Tuesday and did not question any of the state's witnesses.

Prosecutors said they expect the bench trial to conclude on Friday.