Angel Facio files petition for rape sentence to be reviewed

After a three-week extension, Angel Facio Wednesday filed a request for his sentence in the September 2007 rape of an 8-year-old Elgin girl to be reviewed.

Facio, 17, of Elgin, in February asked for a new trial in Kane County Circuit Court, where he was convicted of raping an 8-year-old neighborhood girl in September.

The handwritten request claimed Hampshire defense attorney Nils Von Keudell inadequately represented Facio and interfered with his right to consult his mother.

The result was a 16-year prison sentence that Facio describes in his filing as "unethical, extremely too severe and amounts to cruel and unusual punishment."

Facio pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual assault, a Class X felony, in September after he was accused of raping the girl. Ten related charges were dismissed in exchange for the plea.

By law, Facio had only 30 days to appeal his own guilty plea and request a new trial. However, Facio has the right to file what the court calls a "post-conviction petition," a document claiming his constitutional rights were violated in the case or that he is innocent of the crime.

On April 23, Judge Allen Anderson allowed a public defender to help him establish a course of action. But upon declaring that he wished to submit the post-conviction petition Wednesday, Anderson told Facio that he would no longer be represented by the public defender.

"People in this position don't have lawyers appointed by the court at this stage," the judge said.

Anderson has 90 days to consider Facio's request. He will rule by written order.

Only Facio's mother, Sinthia, along with a family friend, attended the hearing. Sinthia Facio declined to comment.

Facio, who has been held in the Illinois Youth Center in St. Charles due to his frequent court appearances, will be taken back to his home base, the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice in downstate Kewanee.

Last June, Facio was convicted of stabbing Elgin High School teacher Carolyn Gilbert in the head, neck and eye. Cook County Judge Edward Pietrucha sentenced Facio to a minimum of 18 months in a juvenile facility and up to 17 years in adult prison if he was ever found guilty of violating the sentencing terms. Another unrelated case, where he is accused of the January 2008 attempted abduction of a student from Elgin's Larsen Middle School, is still pending in Kane County Juvenile Court. That case is up next week.