Holland Man Guilty Of Kidnapping IllinoisWoman, Attacking Another

CHICAGO, IL — A Holland, Michigan man has pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a suburban Chicago woman after burglarizing her home in September 2015. In a release, officials from the the Public Information Office for the U.S. Attorney's Northern District of Illinois said 35-year old Carleous Clay admitted in a plea agreement Tuesday that he broke into the woman's Lansing, Ill. home and stole several valuable items, before returning to the house that same night as the woman was getting home.

According to the plea agreement, Clay planned on stealing more items, and abducted the woman and drove her car to an ATM in Munster where he used her PIN to withdraw $140 from her bank account.

Clay then drove to a vacant business parking lot in Burns Harbor and sexually assaulted the woman in the backseat of her car, the plea agreement reports. According to officials, the victim suffered permanent and life-threatening injuries, but survived.

District officials reported Clay pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping, one count of attempted murder, and one count of using fire to commit a felony. U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall set Clay's sentencing for 10 a.m., Oct. 9, 2018, and the conviction is punishable by up to life in prison.

Clay also admitted in the plea agreement that he attacked a female case manager in April 2017 while he was an inmate at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago, officials say.

The plea agreement says Clay went to the case manager's office to pretend to complain about another inmate, and instead pushed the case manager to the floor and took her keys, locking them both inside.

Clay admitted that he put a homemade knife to the woman's throat and threatened to kill her, before staff members intervened.

According to a release, Clay's guilty plea was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Jeffrey S. Sallet, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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