A February jury trial has been set for an Aurora man charged with kidnapping and murder following a fight last year outside public housing apartments on the city’s East Side.
Anthony Bills, 39, of the 700 block of Fifth Avenue, is charged with five counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of mob action in connection with the death of Clarence King, 18, of the first block of North Sumner Street.
Bills, who has pleaded not guilty, remains in Kane County jail with bail set at $5 million. His trial has been set to begin Feb. 5 before Kane County Circuit Judge John A. Barsanti at the county judicial center in St. Charles.
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Bills says he has an alibi, with three witnesses including a woman identified in other court documents as his wife, according to a notice of affirmative defense filed in October.
On July 15, 2016 — the night King disappeared — police went to break up a large fight they said was likely gang-related outside the Maple Terrace apartments on the 900 block of Second Avenue, an Aurora Housing Authority property.
By the time Aurora police officers got to Maple Terrace about 8:30 p.m., people were running and driving away, according to reports. Bills’ stepson noticed his car — a maroon Pontiac documented at the fight — was missing.
Bills’ stepson and a group trying to get his car back found King, who said he didn’t know where it was, and brought him to Bills’ Aurora home, where they beat him, according to a search warrant affidavit. Bills allegedly told others to put King inside the trunk of a white Lincoln, the affidavit states.
When the Lincoln pulled up on the 4500 block of West End Avenue in Chicago’s West Garfield Park, the people inside got out and confronted King in the trunk, putting a sock in his mouth to quiet him and beating him again, leaving him on the ground, police stated in the affidavit.
In late July 2016, Bills was charged with mob action in connection with the fight. He was in jail on those charges when murder and kidnapping charges were filed this March.