Man guilty in high school reunion stabbing in Lisle

An Indianapolis man who was angered when a high school reunion party interrupted his sleep at a Lisle hotel was found guilty Thursday of stabbing one of the revelers in the heart.

Tony Oliver, 45, was convicted in a bench trial of stabbing Louis Hernandez at the Wyndham Hotel early Aug. 30, 2009.

The attack happened after Hernandez and several other members of the East Aurora High School Class of 1989 left their 20th reunion in a hotel ballroom and took the party to a room next door to Oliver’s.

“It turned out to be memorable for all the wrong reasons,” DuPage County Prosecutor Andrew Grill said.

Authorities alleged Oliver was enraged upon waking up about 3 a.m. to the sound of loud music and chatter from an adjoining room and decided to take matters into his own hands.

A confrontation ensued when the two men met in a hallway outside their rooms.

Oliver claimed he stabbed Hernandez after the victim and three classmates began kicking and punching him as he tried to make his way to the lobby to file a complaint.

At one point, he said, he wrested a knife away from someone in the group and began slashing in self-defense.

But several eyewitnesses, including a man who had accompanied Oliver to a race at Joliet’s Chicagoland Speedway earlier that day, testified they saw him carrying the knife seconds before the fight broke out.

“This wasn’t a fight until the defendant made it a fight,” Prosecutor Todd Fanter said.

Hernandez, 40, of Plainfield, expressed relief Thursday that Judge George Bakalis found his version credible and convicted Oliver of aggravated battery and unlawful use of a weapon.

“It’s about time,” the father of three said. “It’s been a year and a half and (Oliver) hasn’t spent one night in jail. It took too long.”

Hernandez said the attack left him hospitalized for 10 days and required him to undergo open heart surgery.

He said he still suffers shortness of breath.

Oliver, a previously convicted felon, faces three to 14 years in prison at sentencing. His next court date is May 5.