Man Gets 20 Years For Choking, Stabbing Woman In Wicker Park
CHICAGO (STMW) -- A man with a history of sexual offenses was sentenced to 20 years in prison Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to attempted murder for choking and repeatedly stabbing a Wicker Park flower shop employee.
Alexander Hampton, 26, pleaded guilty to the Feb. 17. 2012 crime during a hearing before Cook County Judge James Obbish, according to court records.
Prosecutors say Hampton entered the Asrai Garden flower shop at 1935 W. North Ave. and told the clerk he was deaf. When the then 28-year-old woman gave him a clipboard, he began asking her what he could get his girlfriend, but then he started writing obscene messages.
Hampton, of the 3300 block of West Douglas Boulevard, then proceeded to grab the woman's throat and choked her until she passed out.
When she woke up, Hampton was standing over her with a knife in his hand.
But before stabbing her, he walked her to the register and forced her to open it before taking $100 out, prosecutors said. Angry there wasn't more money, Hampton stabbed the woman in the ribs and then in the index finger when she tried to protect herself.
He also stabbed her in the neck and beat her with a wooden pole, prosecutors said.
The woman was eventually able to break away, run into the bathroom and call 911.
Hampton fled with the $100 from the register and the woman's iPod, which had been in her purse, court records show.
Hampton was sentenced to four years in prison for a 2008 drug conviction and three years for possession of a stolen motor vehicle. In 2006, he was convicted of aggravated battery and, as a juvenile, was convicted of a 2003 sex offense.
Police say Hampton never registered as a violent sex offender and has now been charged for that offense.
