Attorneys on both sides cite home life

Family problems may have spurred a 16-year-old's brutal attack on an Elgin High School teacher, prosecutors told a Cook County judge Wednesday.

Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Kevin Frey said Angel Facio had told Associate Principal Alan Flota, who spoke to Facio alone after the attack, that the knife was from home and that he had planned to stab someone that day. He admitted that he stabbed Gilbert to get attention from his parents; he was having problems at home, Frey said.

While outlining evidence for Judge Paul Stralka to determine whether there is cause to transfer the teen to adult court, Frey unveiled new details of the Jan. 18 attack.

Before the attack, Frey said, Facio scoped out Carolyn Gilbert's first-floor classroom.

Around 11:15 a.m. Jan. 18, Facio walked into Gilbert's otherwise empty classroom and asked to wait there until the bus came.

A family and consumer science teacher, Gilbert had taught the student during the 2006-2007 school year.

Gilbert allowed Facio to wait but explained she was tending to some work. The last day of semester finals, classes had concluded at 11 a.m.

After a few minutes, Facio ran up from behind, threw a coat over Gilbert and pulled her to the floor, Frey said. He began stabbing her in the head and neck with a black serrated steak knife, Frey said.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry -- they told me to do it," the teen told Gilbert, according to Frey.

Math teacher Walter Gannon heard Gilbert's cries from an adjoining classroom and intervened, stopping the bloody attack.

Gilbert was stabbed at least seven times, according to Frey. She sustained puncture wounds to her right eye, the back of her neck, above her eyebrows, and behind her right ear, he said.

Gilbert's right eye was removed Feb. 1, Frey said. She wears a temporary prosthetic eye and will get a permanent piece April 14.

According to Public Defender James Martin, Facio's home life was unstable at best.

Facio's mother, Sinthia Facio, is on probation for cocaine charges, Martin said.

Last fall, Elgin High School chess coach Patrick McCarthy found a personal journal belonging to Facio that detailed the teen's troubled mental state, Martin said.

The journal, the first entry dated Sept. 4, 2007, described thoughts of suicide, Facio's parents fighting and his mother's drug use.

McCarthy encouraged Sinthia Facio to read the journal and get help for her son.

Not willing to violate her son's privacy, she never read the journal until after the Jan. 18 attack, Martin said.

"This young man had clearly been crying out for help in this journal," Martin said.

Stralka ruled that he'll consider whether to send Facio to adult court and will hear arguments to that end.

The judge will consider a number of factors: Facio's criminal history, mental health issues, whether the crime was aggressive or premeditated, and the reasonable likelihood that he could be rehabilitated through the juvenile system.

Other than a school citation for writing profanities, Facio has no criminal background, but he is facing two unrelated sets of charges in Kane County Court.

He is accused of sexually assaulting an 8-year old Elgin girl in August and of trying to abduct a Larsen Middle School student in January.

Stralka has yet to rule on whether he will consider the other cases in making his decision.

Arguments will continue at a hearing on April 9. Stralka is expected to set another date to rule on the motion, the state's attorney's office said.