Indiana man gets 80 years for trying to kill ex-wife in Sugar Grove
An Indiana man was sentenced to 80 years in prison Monday for an attack on his ex-wife during which he told her that if he could not have her, nobody else could.
Kennrith Foster, 50, of East Chicago will have to serve at least 85% of the time for the Dec. 17, 2017, attack, in which he shot and beat the victim late at night at her job at a Sugar Grove gas station.
"I hope this victim finds justice in this sentence, and relief in the knowledge that Mr. Foster will be spending the rest of his life behind bars," Kane County State's Attorney Joe McMahon said in a news release.
At his trial in October, the victim testified that Foster shot her in the head. But a malfunction with the ammunition - possibly damaged by moisture or age, an expert testified - made it so that the .38-caliber bullet lodged only in her scalp.
After Foster shot her, he beat her, choked her in to unconsciousness, then jumped on her back several times. A surveillance video played at the trial showed the attack.
He stole her wedding and engagement rings and her cellphone before running off. He was arrested 11 days later in Phoenix, Arizona, by the FBI's violent-fugitive task force.
Foster's attorney argued that Foster was emotionally wounded, wanted to know why his ex-wife had remarried, and meant to only hurt her, not kill her. The attorney said Foster did not know the gun had gone off.
Judge D.J. Tegeler disagreed.
"Nobody in their right mind can say that is not an intent to kill," Tegeler said in delivering his verdict in the bench trial. "He took the gun, placed it against her skull, and he pulled the trigger."
Tegeler convicted Foster of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, armed violence, felony armed robbery, felony aggravated domestic battery and felony unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.
Kendall County court records show that the victim reported, in paperwork for an order of protection, that Foster had called her 200 times on Dec. 4, 2017, called or texted 40 times Dec. 5, and called 10 more times Dec. 6. When she answered once, he became enraged when she told him there was no way she was going back to him.
She also wrote that he threatened to kill her and whoever was with her.
Foster has been in the Kane County jail since his arrest.