Emerald Ausby sentenced to life for Bolingbrook murder
June 6
JOLIET – Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow announced Tuesday that Emerald Ausby, 31, of Bolingbrook, was sentenced to life in prison for a crime spree five years ago that included the brutal killing and sexual assault of his neighbor.
During that violent spree in June and July of 2001, Ausby also stabbed the proprietor of a Bolingbrook dry cleaner during a robbery, and he attempted to rob a Bolingbrook motel.
Circuit Judge Gerald Kinney handed down a life sentence with no chance of parole for the murder and a 160-year sentence for the robberies Tuesday afternoon at the request of prosecutors Lea Norbut-Sicinski, chief of Glasgow’s criminal division, and Neil Adams, who heads the state’s attorney’s felony division.
“This sentence guarantees our citizens can rest assured that this violent killer will never again walk our streets free to terrorize innocent people,” Glasgow said. “No amount of punishment can ever undo the carnage inflicted upon these defenseless victims, but solace can be taken in the knowledge that this depraved murderer will spend the rest of his life staring at prison walls.”
Ausby broke into the home of Arlinda Paez on July 10, 2001. Upon being discovered inside the house, Ausby sexually assaulted Paez and then beat her to death with a baseball bat.
Paez and her husband came to the United States from the Philippines in 1988 because they wanted better educational opportunities for their children. She was a teacher in the Philippines and took a job in a nursing home after arriving in this country.
The murder capped a series of violent crimes that began on June 2, 2001, when Ausby robbed the Pennywise Dry Cleaner in Bolingbrook and stabbed the proprietor in the chest with a kitchen knife. The knife punctured the woman’s gallbladder and cut her liver. The victim also suffered a head injury when Ausby threw her to the ground and dragged her to the back of the store.
The woman survived the attack. Ausby stole $272.
On June 22, 2001, he attempted to rob a Bolingbrook motel while wearing a black ski mask. During that botched robbery, he jumped over the desk and slapped the night manager when she started to scream. Nothing was taken.
Ausby entered a blind plea of guilty in May to indictments charging first-degree murder, home invasion, armed robbery and criminal sexual assault stemming from the Paez case.
He pleaded guilty in December to indictments charging attempted murder, armed robbery and attempted robbery in connection with the dry cleaner and motel robberies.
The state’s attorney’s office originally 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 under the law for the death penalty.