Elgin teen closer to new trial for attack on child

A Kane County Judge has advanced Angel Facio's request for his guilty plea to be withdrawn in the August 2007 rape of an 8-year-old Elgin girl onto the next stage.

In his order, dated last week, Judge Allen Anderson wrote that Facio's claims that his lawyer did a poor job "were not frivolous, and were not patently without merit."

So the door remains open on Facio's case.

The 17-year-old Elgin teen in February asked for a new trial in Kane County Circuit Court, where he was convicted last September in that attack.

The misspelled, handwritten request claimed Hampshire defense attorney Nils Von Keudell "terrified and coherced" Facio into accepting a plea agreement by "means of lying, and inflicting fear."

It also claimed Von Keudell "misadvised and interfeared with family transfers namely defendent's mother and gaurdian."

The 16-year prison sentence is described by Facio 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 also had 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 was innocent of the crime.

On April 23, Judge Anderson allowed a public defender to help him establish a course of action. Facio in May chose to go the route of the post-conviction petition.

The next step, Assistant State's Attorney Christine Bayer said, is to arrange a court date.

Bayer said that later this week she will file a written request for Facio to be brought up from the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice in downstate Kewanee, where he has been held for the past several weeks.

He'll be provided with an attorney who will investigate Facio's allegations in the original post-conviction petition and determine whether or not to file an amended petition.

The investigation stage, Bayer said, has no time limit. "It can be lengthy," she said.

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 in the January 2008 attempted abduction of a student from Elgin's Larsen Middle School, is still pending in Kane County Juvenile Court.