Teen accused in Elgin High teacher's stabbing in court on rape charge

A 16-year-old boy accused of stabbing an Elgin High School teacher appeared Friday in Kane County circuit court on sex assault charges, offenses prosecutors allege took place about five months before the school attack.

And when Angel Facio Jr. returns to court on March 13, prosecutors said they will try to obtain a sample of his DNA to bolster their case accusing him of raping an 8-year-old.

Facio's parents were not at a brief hearing Friday before Judge Leonard Wojtecki, the teenager's first court appearance in Kane County on the sexual assault offenses, which were filed after the Jan. 18 attack at the school.

Wojtecki appointed a public defender to represent Facio and ordered his parents to attend their son's next court date.

Wearing a gray-and-black flannel shirt, gray jeans and black sneakers, Facio did not speak but glanced often at the audience. He was shackled and flanked by two officers from the Cook County juvenile detention center.

Facio is being held in a Chicago youth jail on attempted murder and other offenses in the school stabbing. He faces a March 12 hearing that will determine if he will be tried as an adult in the attack that seriously injured Carolyn Gilbert.

Gilbert was in a classroom with Facio after an early dismissal from semester exams when a coat was thrown over her and she was stabbed with a steak knife, resulting in the loss of vision in one eye, police have said.

The Kane County sexual assault charges were filed Jan. 25, a delay which prompted State's Attorney John Barsanti to overhaul the protocol used in the county's child advocacy center.

The changes include having senior prosecutors weigh in on proposed charges from the child advocacy center, an arm of the state's attorney's office. Barsanti also is considering new methods to inform school districts of investigations involving students.