I'll take S-words for $500, Alex

BY TONA KUNZ
Daily Herald Staff Writer
A Sugar Grove man accused of holding a homeless man hostage and slashing his face with a samurai sword, turned down a chance Thursday to avoid a trial.

Raymond M. Wilson, of 895 Merrill New Road, fired his Aurora attorney after the man brought him a plea bargain offered up by prosecutors.

Wilson, 47, faces a potential prison sentence of up to 30 years for charges of armed vio-lence, aggravated battery using a deadly weapon, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggra-vated battery causing great bodily harm.

Prosecutors declined to comment on the plea offer, saying only it was “reasonable” and didn’t require time in a mental institution.

After lengthy meetings be-tween the attorneys on the plea deal, Wilson told a Kane County judge he wanted a public defender because, as he said, “my attorney says this is over his head.”

Wilson is accused of trapping in his home for two days a homeless man that had done chores around his house. Ac-cording to court papers, the man told police that Wilson gave him cocaine and then told him he had to help him rob a bank and write the robbery note.

After the pair scouted banks in Elgin, they got in a dis-agreement in the closet of the master bed room and Wilson sliced his face with the samurai sword, the man said. Two days later, Wilson let the man go, he said, after telling him that his face was infected and would make him too recognizable to be of any use in the robbery.

Wilson is being held in the Kane County jail on $150,000 bond, but he plans to argue Monday to have that amount reduced. He said he has no savings, his home is in foreclo-sure and his 1993 Lexus has been impounded by Aurora police, likely connected to a recent charge of driving under the influence of drugs.

At his bond hearing, prose-cutors are expected to discuss his medical records and his criminal history. He served 28 months in prison for bank rob-bery in San Francisco and was released in 1999.