A Lake County Jail inmate charged with severely stabbing a Vernon Hills woman in 2015 while on a date has been recorded using a jail phone to tell family members he is feigning insanity to avoid prison, a prosecutor said in court Tuesday.
Assistant State’s Attorney Lauren Kalcheim Rothenberg told Judge Daniel Shanes that the state has jail telephone recordings of Daniel Dion, 20, of Des Plaines, telling family members that he is “pretending to be crazy” because he doesn’t want to go to prison and instead hopes to go to a psychiatric hospital.
Dion’s attorney, Ian Kasper, has already formally entered an insanity defense for Dion’s trial, scheduled to begin Oct. 31. Dion faces felony charges including attempted murder.
Kasper was given discs containing the recordings Tuesday. Rothenberg also said a notebook was confiscated from Dion’s cell that could lead to charges, and that he had written a letter to the stabbing victim, violating a no-contact order.
As a result of those factors, Rothenberg said she has given Dion’s defense a deadline of Oct. 4 to accept a plea deal she has offered to resolve the case. After that deadline, she said the state will seek indictments for new charges against Dion.
Shanes responded that he does not expect the new information to affect the date of Dion’s trial, unless it is resolved through the plea deal.
“This is going on two years,” he said of the pretrial process.
Kasper said he believes he may need a delay because the doctor who performed a psychological evaluation of Dion for the defense is having medical problems, but Shanes said he believes there is enough time for Kasper to manage a way to get the doctor’s testimony to court or pursue a new evaluation with a different doctor.
Kasper had no comment after the hearing on the plea deal offer from the state, the details of which are not being made public.
Dion has pleaded not guilty to one count of attempted first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated battery for allegedly stabbing Katherine King outside of a Deer Park movie theater on Jan. 8, 2015.
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Dion allegedly told investigators he stabbed King because “she annoyed him,” according to Lake County Sheriff’s Office officials and prosecutors.
He has been held without bond in Lake County Jail since he was arrested shortly after officers arrived at the Century Theater at 21600 W. Field Parkway the night of the incident.
Authorities said Dion admitted to police that he attacked the woman and stabbed her multiple times while inside her vehicle. He told investigators “he woke up in the morning with the intent to kill her because she annoyed him,” according to a Lake County Sheriff’s news release.
Officials said Dion arranged to meet with King, then 24, under the “guise” of going on a date to the movie theater.
King, who suffered punctured lungs as well as cuts to her face and neck, was taken to the intensive care unit at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights.
She had been in critical condition prior to and after surgery, but has since recovered and attended some of Dion’s court appearances.
Attempted first-degree murder is a Class X felony carrying a sentencing range of six to 30 years, which can be extended up to 60 years under certain aggravating circumstances.
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