'Brutal and heinous': Man gets 30 years in prison for Crystal Lake hammer attack
A 50-year-old Woodstock man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for a 2019 attack along a Crystal Lake bike path that a McHenry County judge called "brutal and heinous."
Angel Reinaldo-Cardoza was sentenced last week, after pleading guilty July 1 to attempted murder and aggravated battery charges for using a hammer to assault two women using the path Sept. 24, 2019.
"It is the antithesis of what we think of when we think of our community," one of the women, Sarah Sullivan, said in court Thursday.
Both Sullivan and Dolores Gorski, a passerby who intervened in the initial attack on Sullivan, confronted Reinaldo-Cardoza during his sentencing hearing Thursday.
Sullivan said she thought she might die that day that as she lay on the ground, attempting to fight off the stranger as he repeatedly struck her with a hammer.
"I know deep in my heart if I had not come to Sarah's aid, the defendant would have murdered her," Gorski said.
Cardoza summarized the attack as "a stupid thing revolving around alcohol" and said he hadn't been in the "right state of mind."
The attack happened about 5:15 p.m. on a bike trail near the intersection of Oak Street and Crystal Ridge Drive, north of Route 176.
Sullivan was walking home from work on what she called "the perfect fall day" when she crossed paths with Reinaldo-Cardoza. After a brief encounter, he grabbed her wrist and pulled out a hammer, striking her on the top of her head, she said. Reinaldo-Cardoza struck Sullivan five times, causing her to fall to the ground.
"I thought that I would black out and be dead," Sullivan said.
That's when Gorski appeared on her bicycle and interrupted the assault.
"I remember thinking, 'Oh, my God, if this woman turns around and leaves, I'm going to die,' " Sullivan said.
Reinaldo-Cardoza redirected his aggression at Gorski and struck her arm with the claw side of the hammer, she said.
"It finally dawned on me that he wanted my phone," Gorski said.
She tossed Reinaldo-Cardoza her phone, which he smashed with the hammer and threw in the brush before running off. As he fled, he left behind items that police later used to help identify and locate him, and he was arrested three days later.
"(Reinaldo-Cardoza) was on a mission that day to kill," Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Randi Freese said. "I don't say that lightly, and I don't say that to be dramatic."
Sullivan and Gorski continue to suffer emotional trauma and lasting physical side effects from the attack, they said. Sullivan said her screams for help caused her to lose her voice for five days, her hands shook for weeks, and she continues to experience headaches and jaw pain from the first blow of the hammer to the top of her head.
Neither woman feels safe walking the path alone, and for Gorski, the attack served as a painful reminder of another random act of violence that touched her family years earlier. Her son, David Gorski, was shot and killed by a stranger in December 2016.
Just weeks before the Crystal Lake attack, Dolores Gorski stood in front of a crowded Lake County courtroom and read a victim impact statement at the shooter's sentencing hearing. He currently is serving 78 years in prison.
"Thirteen days later, I was again the victim of another senseless act of violence," Dolores Gorski said in court Thursday.
Reinaldo-Cardoza told probation officers during a presentence investigation that he was the victim of a similar attack where he was hit in the head and suffered a brain injury.
"All I can tell you is Mr. Cardoza is sorry for what these women went through," said his attorney, Assistant McHenry County Public Defender Richard Behof.
Reinaldo-Cardoza asked the women to forgive him, adding that "no one is a saint."
"That's why I pled guilty because I didn't want to make things any worse," he said.
His statement, however, was "devoid of an apology," McHenry County Judge Michael Coppedge said.
"A person with a moral fiber of a sense of compassion would seemingly apologize," he added.