Aurora Man Pleads Guilty To Strangling, Beating Wife To Death In 2018

AURORA, IL — Four years after fatally strangling and beating his wife and attempting to take his own life, a 60-year-old Aurora man has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, according to officials at the Kane County State's Attorney's Office.

In exchange for the guilty plea, Carlos Nunez, 60, of the 400 block of South Ohio Street, has agreed to a 22-year sentence of imprisonment at the Illinois Department of Corrections, officials said.

On the morning of April 26, 2018, prosecutors said in court that Nunez, was in a "jealous rage," believing his wife, Jovita, was being unfaithful to him. While she slept in a bedroom upstairs, he grabbed a hammer from the garage, went upstairs and hit his wife several times in the head.

The man then proceeded to strangle her by putting his arms around her neck before he tied a handkerchief around her neck until she stopped moving. He then attempted to take his own life by swallowing a large number of pain reliever pills, starting the gas on the stove and cutting his wrists, officials said.

A relative came to the house to check in after Nunez didn't show up to work and found him unconscious but breathing on the bed next to his wife's body — both of them covered in blood, officials said.

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Officials said the autopsy revealed the woman's cause of death was strangulation. Her death is the culmination of years of physical abuse from her husband, as officials said he was first charged with domestic battery against her in 1997.

"This is the worst possible outcome of domestic abuse," Kane County Assistant State’s Attorney Lori Schmidt said in a statement. "Mr. Nunez decided that instead of facing up to rejection, he'd assume control and end Jovita’s life. His selfishness has destroyed a family, ripping away a mother from her children and a grandmother from her grandchildren."

Nunez is required to serve all 22 years of his prison sentence, officials said. He will receive credit for the 1,415 days he has served in the Kane County jail, where he has been held since his arrest, in lieu of a $1 million bail.