Schaumburg teen in hammer attack pleads guilty

“I had to get rid of it.”

That’s what a Schaumburg teenager who pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempted first-degree murder said she felt after she repeatedly bludgeoned her neighbor Rajesh Thakkar with a hammer just before midnight on March 29, 2010.

Asked by detectives what she meant by “it,” the girl responded, “the man,” said Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Adrienne Lund during a hearing in Rolling Meadows juvenile court Tuesday.

Authorities say robbery motivated the attack, which caused traumatic brain injuries that cost the 59-year-old victim his right eye and shattered his jaw. Comatose for several weeks, Thakkar spent three months in the hospital and underwent months of speech and occupational therapy. He did not appear at Tuesday’s hearing.

Plainclothes officers responding to a 911 call from the victim’s wife described Thakkar stumbling and moaning, covered in blood with his “eye no longer intact,” Lund said.

Earlier that evening, the girl, now 16, told her sister she wanted to rob someone. She told police she chose Thakkar because he lived in her building, said Lund. The teen chose him because she knew what time he returned home from work every night.

And she chose Thakkar because she claimed he said ‘hi’ to her in the hallway, Lund said.

The teen admitted taking a hammer from a toolbox and placing it atop the lobby mailboxes. She told police she then watched from the window of her apartment for Thakkar to return home from his late shift at an Elgin gas station, Lund said. As he entered the building to collect his mail, “their eyes met, but this time the man did not say ‘hi’” Lund said.

Instead, the girl struck him in the back of the head with the hammer, Lund said. More blows followed, after which the girl admitted dragging him out the door to the back of the building, “like you’d lead a dog by his collar,” Lund said.

The girl admitted striking Thakkar, taking his wallet and pulling him toward a pond behind the building, Lund said. A third floor neighbor alerted by a high-pitched noise he thought was a scream, reported seeing the girl standing by someone who appeared to be stumbling, Lund said. The girl noticed the man watching and walked away from Thakkar as the neighbor dialed 911, Lund said.

Answering a knock on his door, the neighbor opened it to find the girl, who asked if she could come in to wash her hands. The teen later told police she “had to make it look like she was helping” Thakkar, Lund said.

Calling her mother from the neighbor’s apartment, the girl said, “I think the guy is dead.”

The girl told her mother she witnessed the attack and the mother urged her to tell police. Instead, the girl returned to her apartment, changed into her pajamas and went to bed, said Lund.

Prosecutors also detailed Tuesday two other cases to which the girl pleaded guilty. One was a carjacking outside the Schaumburg library on Jan. 8, 2010. The girl and a male offender approached a woman as she entered her car and demanded her keys, Lund said. The girl shoved the woman to the ground and later admitted to the police that she struck the woman with closed fists. Wisconsin police stopped the car, in which the girl was a passenger, 10 days later.

The teen also pleaded guilty to a battery involving a Schaumburg High School student which occurred on Jan. 25 as the girl exited a school bus.

Cook County Judge Richard Walsh set April 19 for sentencing. Lund indicated she will introduce a victim impact statement at that time.

Because attempted first-degree murder is not a charge that requires automatic transfer to adult court, the girl has been charged as a juvenile. As such, her sentence ranges from five years probation to incarceration in the juvenile justice division until she turns 21.

However, the teen could face an extended prison sentence if she violates whatever sentence she receives. Judge Walsh agreed to prosecutors’ request for extended juvenile jurisdiction prosecution, which essentially imposes an adult sentence of 15 years for the Class X felony if the teen violates the condition of her sentence.