Armando Trejo Jr. stared without expression at Judge George Strickland Thursday as the judge told him he faces potential natural life in prison for the alleged beating death of his wife and stepson.
Attorneys for the 47-year-old Beach Park resident entered a not guilty plea at his arraignment before Strickland, who set an initial trial date of Jan. 22 for Trejo, and a case management hearing Jan. 21 before Judge James Booras.
Assistant State’s Attorney Eric Kalata provided the court with several items of discovery, including a list of witnesses, to be given to the defense, and said several audio-video disks would also be forthcoming.
According to Lake County Sheriff’s Office officials, Trejo admitted to the attacks when being interviewed by investigators.
Public defender Molly Winleimback, one of the attorneys representing Trejo, declined comment.
Strickland told Trejo he faces several counts of first-degree murder for the alleged murder of his wife, Lailani Uy Trejo, 43, and his stepson, 14-year-old Patrick Uy, using a baseball bat as a murder weapon on Nov. 29.
Strickland said that because he is accused of murdering more than one person, he could face a mandatory natural life sentence if convicted, and that the state was seeking that penalty. Strickland said prosecutors were also seeking an extended term due to alleged “wanton cruelty” in the case.
Trejo also faces several counts of aggravated battery for allegedly also striking and injuring his mother during the attack, with one of the counts enhanced because it involves a victim over the age of 60.
According to the sheriff’s office, deputies arrived at a home on the 10200 block of West Bairstow Avenue at 2:50 a.m. Nov. 29 after receiving a 911 call from Trejo’s wife. Prosecutors said the female 911 caller stopped speaking, but the operator could hear a pinging noise, which officials later said was the sound of a metal baseball bat striking her.
Officers found Trejo outside, and he claimed that children playing with the phone had placed the 911 call, according to prosecutors.
Inside the home, the officers found a bloody bat and two bodies lying on the ground with pools of blood and blood spatters evident in the room. Prosecutors said the murders began as an argument and escalated into an attack by Trejo against his wife.
As Lailani Trejo, 43, was being attacked, Patrick Uy ran upstairs to warn Trejo’s parents, authorities said. Trejo’s father was at the home during the attack but is elderly and was unable to help, according to sheriff’s Detective Christopher Covelli said. Trejo’s mother, 68, tried to intervene in the attack, but Trejo struck her and broke her arm. Uy then tried to intervene himself, and was also killed, according to authorities.
The boy, who previously stayed with his mother’s parents, had lived at the house for just three weeks, Covelli said.
Trejo is being held in Lake County Jail, with bail set at $5 million.
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