2 million bail set in couple's carjack,
21-year-old charged in attack on 2 seniors after they fed birds

Chicago Tribune, January 10, 2006

Bail was set at $2 million Monday for a West Chicago man charged in a bizarre and brutal attack on a retired couple feeding birds Sunday morning.

"There is no way to explain his behavior," said DuPage County State's Atty. Joseph Birkett at a news conference in Wheaton. "There is no indication of drug or alcohol intoxication, and they didn't know each other."

David Martinez Villareal, 21, is charged with aggravated battery, aggravated vehicular hijacking, vehicular invasion and aggravated battery of a senior citizen in the attack, which left a 71-year-old woman unconscious and in critical condition Monday in Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield.

Birkett said the woman's 65-year-old husband has been released from the Winfield hospital but is still disoriented. Birkett did not release the West Chicago couple's names but said they have been married for 31 years.

The couple regularly drives their pickup truck to the 800 block of Main Street, near the Main Park apartment complex, and feed wild birds, authorities said.

As they finished about 8 a.m. Sunday, a man who lives in the apartment complex approached the couple, authorities alleged.

They said he "started screaming and yelling and got into a verbal altercation with the husband, opened the door [of their truck] and started beating him in the face. When the wife got out of the truck to come to her husband's rescue, he began to beat her," Birkett said.

Birkett said the attacker got into the truck and drove off, running over the woman's shoulder and the back of her head.

The man drove the truck only a short distance before exiting it. Villareal was arrested within minutes without a struggle, said West Chicago Detective Laz Perez.

"Many residents of the area saw this couple all the time and immediately helped the police in pointing out the suspect," Perez said. "This crime is an embarrassment to the community."

In Bond Court, Assistant State's Atty. Tim Diamond told Judge Joseph Bongiorno that Villareal is a native of Mexico and "has no legal status in the United States." He has no previous criminal record, Diamond said.

Diamond said Villareal has been in this country for about a year and a half and works for a West Chicago graphic design company.

Birkett said additional charges could be sought by the grand jury following the continuing investigation.

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