Bond was set at $1 million Wednesday for an Arlington Heights man charged with beating and stabbing his father to death.
Wearing a hospital gown and scrubs, Steven M. Cole was brought into the Cook County courtroom in Rolling Meadows under heavy guard as prosecutors described how late Monday he allegedly attacked his father while he was lying on his couch, beating him and stabbing him in the chest and eyes.
Stuart Cole, 69, was found dead early Tuesday after police said his son called them and reported that he had just killed his father.
Appearing agitated but relatively calm, Steven Cole, 41, spoke several times during the hearing in a matter-of-fact tone but sometimes incoherently. He said he had been the victim of mental and physical abuse and that he had asked his father to kill him.
“I love my father and my family,” Cole said. “I told my father to shoot me and stop the abuse he was putting me through. I was going to take some sort of Gatorade and antifreeze.”
Prosecutor Maria McCarthy said family members have denied that Stuart Cole ever abused his son. She also said Steven Cole told police that he had planned to douse his father’s body with alcohol and set it on fire, and she said rubbing alcohol and matches, along with a tire iron, lug wrench and a log vise, were found by the victim’s body.
A bloody knife was found stashed under a washing machine in the home, officials said.
Steven Cole, who has been charged with first-degree murder, has a history of mental illness and legal problems, court records show.
More Top Picks Best Monitor Light Bars For Eye Strain
Stuart Cole and his wife, Barbara, had been granted an order of protection against their son in 2007 after he threatened to kill them and then himself, court records show. But his parents allowed him to move back into their home after the order expired, police said.
Officials said Barbara Cole is in a medical facility for cancer treatment and was not home at time of Monday night’s attack.
In emergency call recordings released Wednesday by the Northwest Central Dispatch, a man identified by authorities as Steven Cole told dispatchers that “my dad has been physically and emotionally abusing me.” He said that his father gave him a 104-degree fever from stress and that his psychiatrist said he could have died.
“I killed him because he’s been abusing me and my psychiatrist said he could have killed me,” he said.
George Houde is a freelance reporter; Michelle Stoffel is a Tribune reporter.