Woman who attacked sleeping husband with bat gets jail, probation

A St. Charles woman was sentenced to 180 days in jail and four years of probation Friday after pleading guilty in a brutal, unprovoked attack with a baseball bat on her sleeping husband.

Donna J. Black, 60, of the 400 block of Valley View Drive, pleaded guilty to felony aggravated domestic battery, a crime with a sentence ranging from probation to up to seven years in prison.

In exchange for the plea, Kane County prosecutors dismissed more severe charges such as attempted murder, which is punishable by six to 30 years in prison with no chance of probation if convicted.

Black, who had been held at the Kane County jail for 20 months while the case was pending, was to be released from jail later on Friday.

Dressed in an orange jumpsuit and her voice barely above a whisper, Black told Judge John Barsanti that her memory of the 2017 attack was foggy. She fired her private attorney last month and acted as her own lawyer.

Kane County Assistant State's Attorney Bill Engerman said police were called to the couple's home about 4:30 a.m. Oct. 29, 2017.

Black's husband was sleeping on a pullout bed in a second-floor loft area when Black, armed with a black Louisville Slugger, attacked him, Engerman said.

The 59-year-old man suffered a broken right forearm from blocking the blows and several large cuts on his head, Engerman said.

The couple's two daughters were home, heard him yelling for help and when police arrived, they saw Black on top of her husband, who was curled in a fetal position and “bleeding profusely” from his head, Engerman said.

Black's probation runs until June 2023 and an order of protection bans her from returning to the house on Valley View, Engerman said.

Black is not allowed to have any abusive contact with her daughters and also must follow recommendations from an evaluation by the Kane County Diagnostic Center, Engerman said. If she violates her probation, she could be resentenced to jail or prison.

Black's husband, who attended the court hearing, declined to comment afterward.