Chicago man guilty in Addison garden-tool assault

A Chicago man charged with assaulting an Addison man with a garden tool now faces between six and 30 years in prison.

Judge Robert Kleeman late Wednesday found Runaldo Ramsey, 35, guilty of two counts of aggravated battery and a single count of home invasion.

Prosecutors said an ex-girlfriend's $50 debt sparked Ramsey's severe beating of 45-year-old Steven Stanley.

Stanley testified that, just after midnight on June 9, 2012, Ramsey attacked him inside his apartment with a beer bottle and two 3-feet-long gardening weeders, one of which was blunt, the other with a forked end.

After being stabbed above his eye with the garden tool and slipping in his own blood, Stanley thought he "was a dead man" as Ramsey plunged the forked end into the back of his head.

After the verdict, Ramsey was immediately taken into custody, and his bail revoked. His next court date is Sept. 14 and his sentencing date will be announced at that time.

Ramsey, of the 2400 block of West Taylor Street, has been convicted of misdemeanor domestic battery in DuPage twice since 2010 and was on probation for that offense at the time he is accused of attacking Stanley. A third domestic battery case filed against Ramsey in 2011 was dismissed.