Bail hearing postponed in Naperville stabbing
A man charged with fatally stabbing a teacher inside a Naperville nightclub is making arrangements for police to retrieve several rifles from his home and will cancel his passport, his attorney said in court Friday.
DuPage County prosecutors have asked a judge to raise or revoke 27-year-old Daniel Olaska’s $3 million bail, calling him a flight risk with “rage boiling just beneath the surface.”
Defense attorney Brian Telander was granted extra time Friday to review evidence before the issue goes to a hearing March 2. Until then, Olaska will remain in custody without bail.
Telander said his client is working to cancel his passport, which is missing, and would have family members turn over several rifles to police. He said Olaska used the firearms at a shooting range with his father and church pastor.
“They have nothing to do with the case,” he said.
Olaska, of Naperville, is charged with the murder of Spring Brook Elementary School teacher Shaun Wild and the attempted murder of North Central College student Willie Hayes. Both men were knifed early Feb. 4 at Frankie’s Blue Room in downtown Naperville.
Olaska has no prior criminal history and faces decades in prison if convicted. Authorities said he was a supervisor at Schaumburg Regional Airport and has aviation training. His parents were trying to raise bail.
“This is not their son,” Telander told reporters, relaying a message from Olaska’s father, Timothy, who was in court Friday. “They’re deeply sorry for the incident, and they’re praying for the other family.”
Prosecutors this week turned over several pieces of evidence, including statements from the suspect and four witnesses, Telander said. There also were documents from Facebook and Twitter.
“The investigation is ongoing,” State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said. “We’re still talking to witnesses.”
Prosecutors said surveillance footage from several angles captured Olaska stabbing Hayes in the lung with a 5-inch folding knife as the two sat at a table. The attack was sparked, they said, when Hayes commented on Olaska drinking beer from a wine glass.
When Wild — a 2011 North Central College graduate — followed and tried to prevent Olaska from leaving, the defendant turned and stabbed him in the heart, prosecutors said.
Olaska also is accused of stabbing bouncer Rafael Castenada, who was injured as he and other staff held Olaska until police arrived.
Wild, 24, was a popular second-grade teacher at Naperville’s Spring Brook Elementary School. Last week, more than 1,000 people attended memorial services in his hometown of Brown Deer, Wis., a suburb of Milwaukee.