A sentencing hearing is scheduled next week for Michael Axtell, who faces up to 60 years in prison for his January murder conviction for the beating death of his girlfriend in her Antioch Township home.
Axtell was found guilty of murdering 40-year-old Tammy Stone during an altercation in her house in October 2012.
Following his bench trial conviction, Judge Victoria Rossetti revoked Axtell’s $3 million bail and he has remained in Lake County Jail without bond while awaiting his sentencing, which can result in 20 to 60 years in prison.
According to prosecutors, Axtell struck Stone three times with his fist — with the final one being the fatal blow — during an altercation the two had after returning home from a bar Oct. 24, 2012.
Dr. Nancy Jones, who performed the autopsy on Stone, testified that she had died from arterial bleeding in her brain resulting from blunt trauma caused by an assault.
Axtell then left the scene, allegedly trying to steal a car before walking away and being taken into custody two hours later in a wooded area along Route 173, authorities said.
Stone was taken to Northern Illinois Medical Center in McHenry, where she was pronounced dead, but it is believed she died at the scene.
Axtell was scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday, March 3, but one of the prosecutors involved in the case was involved in a murder trial that concluded late that day.
Also scheduled for sentencing next week — after numerous delays — is former teacher Nicole Jacobsen, who pleaded guilty last year to the sexual abuse of a male Mundelein middle school student in 2010.
Jacobsen, 43, of Barrington, pleaded guilty to one count of criminal sexual abuse, a Class 4 felony that carries a potential sentencing range of one to three years in prison. It can also can carry a probationary sentence.
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She had faced a more serious charge of aggravated criminal sexual abuse before agreeing to plead guilty to the lesser charge.
Jacobsen was an eighth-grade teacher at West Oak Middle School when the incident involving a 14-year-old male student occurred in a school classroom on May 13, 2010, after a volleyball game, according to authorities.
Jacobsen remains free from custody after posting 10 percent of a $500,000 bail while numerous hearings, including sentencing, have been delayed several times, with reasons ranging from time conflicts on both sides to medical issues.
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