Florida man arrested in Des Plaines attempted murder

A Florida man has been charged with attempted murder in a beating last March that left a Des Plaines man with permanent injuries, Des Plaines police said Friday in a news release.

Justin Foster, 28, of Tallahassee, Florida, who also faces two counts of aggravated battery, appeared Friday for a bond hearing at the Skokie courthouse. He is being held in Cook County jail on a no-bail warrant, police said.

The victim was dating Foster's ex-girlfriend.

Police gave this account:

About 3:15 a.m. March 14, police and paramedics responding to a call on the 1100 block of Holiday Lane found a 26-year-old man unconscious in the parkway. The victim had been severely beaten about the head and other parts of the body and was bleeding profusely.

The victim was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge and eventually transferred to Northwestern University Hospital in Chicago for treatment of life-threatening injuries. It was several months before he was released from the hospital.

Over several weeks, detectives developed information that led them to suspect Foster. Over several months, detectives continued to develop information and leads, executed more than 40 search warrants and more than 20 subpoenas.

With the information developed, detectives and members from the Cook County state's attorney's office obtained a warrant and went to Tallahassee, where they arrested Foster with the help of local police on Aug. 25. They spent five days there investigating Foster, who was taken to the Leon County jail to await extradition.

Foster waived an extradition hearing and was taken by members of the Cook County sheriff's office to Des Plaines on Thursday.

Des Plaines police did not give any details on how the beating occurred.

"This was an isolated incident; the victim only knew the offender in this incident because the victim had recently been dating the offender's former girlfriend," police said in the news release.