Emerald Ausby Pleads Guilty in Bolingbrook Murder

May 2

JOLIET – Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow announced Tuesday that Emerald Ausby, 31, of Bolingbrook, pleaded guilty to murder for the killing and sexual assault of his neighbor five years ago.

Ausby, 31, was accused of breaking into the home of Arlinda Paez on July 10, 2001. Upon being discovered by Paez in her house, Ausby sexually assaulted the woman and then beat her to death with a baseball bat.

“The guilty plea obtained by my office will eliminate any possibility of appeal and provide absolute certainty to the punishment,” Glasgow said. “We will recommend a sentence of natural life in prison with no chance of parole for this violent killer.”

Ausby entered a blind plea of guilty Tuesday to two counts of first-degree murder, one count of home invasion, one count of armed robbery and one count of criminal sexual assault.

He also is awaiting sentencing following guilty pleas in December to charges of attempted murder, armed robbery and attempted robbery in two separate cases.

In one of those cases, Ausby robbed a local dry cleaner in Bolingbrook on June 2, 2001. He stabbed the proprietor, who survived the attack. In the other case, he attempted to rob a Bolingbrook motel on June 22, 2001. 

Ausby is scheduled to be sentenced on all of the charges by Circuit Judge Gerald Kinney on June 6.

The state’s attorney’s office had announced its intention to seek the death penalty for Ausby in the murder case. The judge, however, ruled in November that Ausby was mentally retarded and therefore not eligible for the death penalty.

Two of Glasgow’s top prosecutors Lea Norbut-Sicinski, chief of the state’s attorney’s criminal division, and Neil Adams, who heads the felony division, personally handled the murder case.

“Once the sentencing hearing is completed on all of these cases, Emerald Ausby will never walk our streets again,” Glasgow said.