Authorities: Elgin home invader attacked ex, new boyfriend

A man who authorities say served time in prison for a 1992 murder was ordered held on $2 million bail Monday on charges of home invasion.

Allen Lopez, who prosecutors say was born in 1975, is charged with entering an Elgin home Sunday and striking a woman who authorities say is his former girlfriend, and her current boyfriend.

Prosecutors say Lopez and the woman had been in a dating relationship that the woman considered casual. After the relationship ended, the woman stayed in telephone contact with Lopez because "she feared something bad would happen to her" if she didn't, said Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Katherine Bird.

The woman warned her new boyfriend about Lopez, but he didn't want to talk about Lopez and never met him, Bird said.

On Sunday morning as the man left home and walked to his car, Lopez walked toward him, called his name and asked him where the woman was, Bird said.

Lopez then began an "unprovoked physical confrontation" and struck the man in the body and face, Bird said. As the man attempted to run inside, Lopez pursued him and struck him with a large, plastic child's toy, Bird said.

According to prosecutors, Lopez followed the man into the house and continued to beat him, causing lacerations on his body. When the woman tried to intervene, Lopez struck her in the eye and on the bridge of her nose, Bird said.

Picking up a chair, Lopez continue to threaten the couple while the woman pleaded with him to stop, Bird said. Instead, Lopez used the chair to smash the man's TV and put a hole in the door, Bird said. After leaving the home, he smashed two windows on the man's car, Bird said. In the meantime, the man and woman locked themselves in the house and called 911, Bird said.

Lopez had been sentenced to 32 years in prison for the 1992 murder, Bird said.

Prosecutors say Lopez was sentenced to six years in prison in 2012 for unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. He also has a 2010 conviction for armed violence for which he received 180 days in jail and 48 months probation, Bird said.

Lopez, who has a DUI pending in Rolling Meadows Third District, must post $200,000 to be released from custody. He next appears in court on Sept. 20.