12 years' prison for Aurora man in attempted murder, car chase, DUI
An Aurora man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison - eight for an attempted murder in late 2015 and two years each for a car chase and a felony driving under the influence arrest.
Billy Cole Jr., 39, of the 2000 block of Grayhawk Drive, sparked a manhunt in March 2017 when he left the Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora after being taken there after a car chase and arrest.
His attorney had filed a court motion to move his case out of Kane and Kendall counties because of pretrial publicity and alleged harassment Cole was receiving from jail guards because his girlfriend was a former Kane County employee.
But instead of a hearing, Cole pleaded guilty to three cases: an attempted murder from December 2015; a felony DUI charge also from December 2015; and the 2017 chase.
Cole had been held at the Kendall County jail since his arrest in late March 2017 outside a relative's home in Quincy that ended the manhunt.
He had been free on bond on other cases, including an aggravated battery from December 2015 that later was upgraded to attempted murder.
Cole, according to court records, was charged with stabbing a man in Aurora on Dec. 20, 2015, and later trying to run him down with a car.
Judge D.J. Tegeler sentenced Cole to eight years in prison on the attempted murder charge. Cole also pleaded guilty to aggravated DUI from Dec. 20, 2015, and the March 2017 chase, and received two years in prison on each to be served consecutively after the attempted murder sentence, records show.
In the chase, Cole refused to stop after police clocked his Ford Fusion speeding north on Lafayette Street in Aurora. The chase ended minutes later after Cole struck a traffic signal on the southeast corner of Route 25 and Ashland Avenue and then ran into a nearby cemetery, ignoring commands to stop.
He was arrested after he was cornered by a police dog and an officer who threatened to use a stun gun. His passenger also was injured and hospitalized.
Under state law, Cole must serve 85 percent of the attempted murder sentence, but can have the other sentences cut in half for good behavior. Cole has numerous felony convictions dating to 1997.