Arlington Heights man awaiting trial dies from COVID-19 infection
An Arlington Heights man who was in jail and awaiting trial in a 2018 beating that left the victim blind in one eye died Tuesday after becoming infected with the coronavirus.
William Sobczyk, 53, formerly of the 0-100 block of North Belmont Avenue, was being held without bond since his arrest Jan. 3, 2019, in connection with a bar fight on Chicago's Northwest Side, according to Cook County sheriff's office spokeswoman Sophia Ansari.
An autopsy Tuesday ruled COVID-19 the cause of Sobczyk's death.
Sobczyk had been in failing health for months, Ansari said. Before his recent hospitalization, Sobczyk had been housed at the Cook County jail's Cermak Health Services Center, where he was being treated for "advanced cancer that had spread throughout his liver, lung, bones and brain."
Since April 18, Sobczyk was being treated at Stroger Hospital for complications related to COVID-19, the spokeswoman said.
He was scheduled for a special bond reduction hearing Tuesday after officials from Cermak Health Services had written a letter on his behalf requesting "compassionate release" because of his poor health and prognosis. An earlier request on April 6 was denied.
Attempts to reach Sobczyk's family were unsuccessful.
Sobczyk is one of 285 detainees at the Cook County jail who have contracted COVID-19, according to the Sheriff Tom Dart. Six inmates have died from the disease, and 10 others are being treated at hospitals.
Additionally, 112 correctional officers and 31 other sheriff's employees have tested positive. Two employees have also died, Dart reported on his website.
Before his 2019 arrest, Sobczyk was on parole for a 2014 aggravated battery of a 63-year-old man he had punched, knocked to the ground and kicked, breaking the man's jaw, the sheriff's spokeswoman said.
He was sentenced to five years in prison for that attack, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
In the bar fight, Sobczyk was accused of breaking a beer bottle over a man's head and then stabbing the man in the arm with the broken bottle, according to a police report.
The man was blinded in one eye, required 40 stitches and suffered permanent hearing loss in one ear.