Ex-con acquitted of attempted murder charge in Naperville bar stabbing
BY BILL BIRD wbird@stmedianetwork.com October 11, 2012 8:00PM
Adam B. Hearn
Updated: November 13, 2012 6:37AM
A man who served time in prison for an attempted gang-related murder 17 years ago has been declared not guilty of attempted murder in last year’s stabbing of a security worker inside a downtown Naperville nightclub.
But ex-convict Adam B. Hearn could still spend the rest of his life in prison, should he be convicted of a companion felony charge of armed violence committed with a weapon.
DuPage County Circuit Court Judge George J. Bakalis ruled Thursday prosecutors failed to prove Hearn intended to kill the bouncer during the March 6, 2011 brawl inside BlackFinn American Saloon, at 16 W. Jefferson Ave.
Hearn “was acquitted on the attempted murder charge,” said Paul Darrah, spokesman for State’s Attorney Robert B. Berlin. “But the armed violence charge is still in the balance here,” a charge on which Bakalis could rule when the matter returns Friday morning to his courtroom, Darrah said.
Naperville police and paramedics were sent to BlackFinn after Hearn used a pocketknife to stab the security worker once in the abdomen. That happened after Hearn and his girlfriend, Kelly L. Cihlar, were found smoking a cigarette inside a restroom, Naperville police said last year.
The bouncer then asked Hearn and Cihlar to smoke outside, police said. Hearn at that point became verbally abusive to the security staff, who then asked the couple to leave.
As Cihlar and Hearn were being escorted outdoors, a fight erupted between Hearn and one of the guards, police said. Other security agents subdued Hearn until police arrived.
Paramedics treated the injured bouncer at the scene and then took him to Edward Hospital in Naperville. He underwent surgery there for a non-life-threatening stab wound.
Hearn, 33, of Lombard, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of an Aug. 20, 1995 drive-by shooting in Glendale Heights, where a party was underway at a rival gang member’s home. He was 16 at the time.
Court records indicated Hearn brought a handgun to the party, and while there got into an argument with another gang member.
Hearn “left the party and, while driving away ... opened fire, shooting four to five times,” according to records. “He missed the persons he was aiming for and inadvertently hit an innocent bystander.”
The victim, a woman, was shot in the buttocks and required hospitalization, records showed. The bullets narrowly missed striking another woman and the gang member with whom Hearn had quarreled, records indicated.
Cihlar, 26, of Woodridge, was sentenced Sept. 14 to 56 days in DuPage County Jail and fined, after being convicted of a misdemeanor charge of resisting or obstructing a police officer during the BlackFinn incident.
Hearn has been held in DuPage County Jail on $250,000 bail since being arrested.
