A Waukegan man who officials said ambushed a woman on the Des Plaines River Trail near Libertyville last summer pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
Denilson Martinez-Rodriguez, 22, pleaded guilty to the most serious charge against him, while additional charges of criminal sexual abuse, aggravated battery in a public place and unlawful restraint were dropped. He faces a sentence that could range from probation to seven years in prison, Assistant State’s Attorney Eric Kalata said.
Lake County Circuit Court Judge Victoria Rossetti, who approved the plea deal, has scheduled Martinez-Rodriguez’s sentencing hearing for April 20.
Martinez-Rodriguez was arrested June 15, 2014, and charged in connection with the attack of a female jogger while she was running on a trail near the Route 176 underpass.
He was taken into custody eight days later in Gurnee’s Gowe Park after police received a 911 call about a suspicious person who appeared to be following female joggers, according to Gurnee Police and Lake County Forest Preserve Police.
Officers said they noticed the man resembled the description of the suspect in the Des Plaines River Trail attack, who had been caught on a video surveillance camera at a service station near the trail, authorities said.
According to police, Martinez-Rodriguez told authorities he grabbed the woman as she ran down the trail, before she screamed and elbowed him twice. He said he then ran back to his vehicle parked at a nearby gas station on Route 176 near the Des Plaines River, police said.
Police said Martinez-Rodriguez saw the woman jogging west on the North Shore Bike Path along Route 176 and then raced ahead, parked his car and waited to ambush her near a Des Plaines River underpass.
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Before the plea was finalized, a sex offender evaluation had been ordered for Martinez-Rodriguez.
He is being held in Lake County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.
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