Man Re-Sentenced in Assault on Elderly Naperville Couple

WHEATON - DuPage County State’s Attorney Joseph E. Birkett announced today that Gregory Hernandez, 45, (d.o.b. 1/27/1963) formerly of Chicago, was sentenced to 80 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) for a 1998 early morning assault and robbery of an elderly Naperville couple.  On April 25, 2002, Hernandez was found guilty of four counts of Home Invasion, two counts of Armed Robbery, two counts of Aggravated Battery Against a Senior citizen and two counts of Attempted Murder.  He was sentenced to 90 years IDOC.  In 2004 however, the Second District Appellate Court of Illinois reversed the Trial Court’s convictions for Attempted Murder.  The Appellate Court also ruled that one of the defendant’s convictions for Armed Robbery and Home Invasion should be vacated because these convictions violate the one-act/one-crime rule.

On December 7, 1998 at approximately 2:45 a.m., a 69 year-old female victim was awoken by Hernandez, who was posing as a police officer, and told to go downstairs because there had been a robbery.  When she arrived downstairs she found her 71 year-old husband on the floor bleeding from his face.  Hernandez then beat both victims with a pair of tin snips and ordered them to open a safe the couple had in their home.  The female victim opened the safe and gave Hernandez $2,000, a diamond ring and more than 20 watches.  An investigation led by the Naperville Police Department led to the arrest of Hernandez nearly three weeks later on December 28.

“I am very pleased with the sentence handed down by Judge Anderson today,” commented Birkett.  “Mr. Hernandez mercilessly beat an elderly couple in the middle of the night in their own home.  At 45 years-old, facing 68 years behind bars, it is extremely unlikely that Mr. Hernandez will ever be in a position to terrorize anyone in the middle of the night ever again.”

Hernandez will be required to serve 85% of his sentence before being eligible for parole.