Aurora man who strangled wife pleads guilty, agrees to 22-year sentence

A 60-year-old Aurora man has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for beating and strangling his wife four years ago.

Carlos Nunez, of the 400 block of South Ohio Street, has agreed to a 22-year sentence, according to the Kane County state's attorney's office.

The plea was accepted by Kane County Judge Salvatore LoPiccolo.

Believing his wife had been unfaithful, Nunez on April 26, 2018, took a hammer and struck Jovita Nunez in the head multiple times, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said he then placed both hands around her neck and began to strangle her before tying a handkerchief around her neck until she stopped moving.

Nunez then swallowed a large quantity of pain reliever tablets, started the gas on the kitchen stove and slashed his wrists in a suicide attempt. Around 4 p.m., a relative who stopped by to check on Carlos Nunez after he failed to show up for work found him unconscious but breathing on the bed next to Jovita Nunez's body. Both were covered in blood.

The autopsy revealed that Jovita Nunez's cause of death was strangulation.

Prosecutors said Carlos Nunez had a history of physically abusing his wife throughout their marriage and had been charged with domestic battery against her in 1997.

Illinois law requires Nunez to serve the full sentence. He receives credit for 1,415 days served in the Kane County jail, where he had been held since his arrest in lieu of $1 million bail.