Man who tried to strangle Naperville woman sentenced
BY BILL BIRD wbird@stmedianetwork.com November 21, 2012 10:06PM
Corman L. Smith, 25, of Riverdale, has been sentenced to five years in prison for trying to strangle a woman last winter in her home in Naperville. | Courtesy of Will County Sheriff's Office
Updated: December 24, 2012 7:21AM
A 25-year-old man has been sentenced to five years in prison for entering an apartment on Naperville’s far south side last winter and choking a woman there.
Corman L. Smith, of south suburban Riverdale, remained Wednesday night in Will County Jail in Joliet, pending transfer into the custody of the state Department of Corrections.
Smith pleaded guilty to a felony charge of aggravated domestic battery/strangulation, according to records on file in Will County Circuit Court. Judge Sarah F. Jones accepted Smith’s plea and sentenced him to prison, records showed.
Prosecutors from the state’s attorney’s office on Nov. 9 declined to pursue five other criminal charges in exchange for Smith’s plea. Records indicated those counts included aggravated domestic battery, domestic battery and unlawful restraint.
Naperville police arrested Smith on Feb. 7, following the bizarre incident in the city’s Rose Hill Farm neighborhood. Smith attacked two women and then kept police at bay for more than an hour before swallowing a household chemical.
Members of the police Special Response Team that morning cordoned off an apartment building on the 1100 block of Cordula Circle. A police spokesman in February said they did so after Smith used a slang term that led police to believe he was armed with a handgun.
A 21-year-old woman told police about 2:30 a.m. that she, another woman and a teenage girl were inside an apartment with Smith. The first woman said Smith tried to strangle her.
Both women and the teen eventually got out of the apartment, but Smith stayed inside, purportedly with a gun. Special Response Team members about 7:13 a.m. roped off the area.
Smith about 8:34 a.m. emerged from the building and surrendered to police, telling them he had ingested cleaning chemicals. Paramedics took him to Edward Hospital in Naperville for treatment.
The second woman later told police she was beaten by Smith. The teenager was not injured.
Smith also contended he had been shot four times prior to the disturbance, but the police spokesman said that claim proved to be unfounded.
An examination of Will County and DuPage County court documents indicated Smith had no prior criminal record.
