Teen's bond set at $2 million

A judge set bond at $2 million Monday for Gareng Deng, an Aurora teen accused of killing a Hoffman Estates substance abuse counselor.

Deng is being held at the Kane County Juvenile Center.

For Deng to be released pending trial, his family would have to post $200,000 ordered by Judge Linda Abrahamson.

Earlier this month, Judge Wiley Edmundson ruled Deng, who was 14 when Marilyn Bethell was reported missing from her Aurora home in October 2005, could be tried as an adult.

Bethell's body was found Dec. 26, 2005, off the Illinois Prairie Path. She was shot in the head.

Deng, 16, a former Waubonsie High School student, is due in court Nov. 7.

If convicted of murder with a handgun, he faces 45 to 85 years in prison and would have to serve the entire sentence.

If Deng, who previously committed eight felonies in a four-year span, were tried in juvenile court, he could have been imprisoned until he turned 21.

During a two-week hearing to move Deng from juvenile to adult court, prosecutors said Deng's DNA matches semen in a tissue found at Bethell's home.

Prosecutors also said police recovered a rare Russian-made gun from Deng's home, his student ID was found along the Prairie Path Oct. 30, and a pillow recovered from her stolen car had a bullet hole through it.