July 16, 2025
Crime & Courts | Daily Chronicle
Crime & Courts

79-year-old woman convicted of hate crime

Aydene T. Militello, 78, of the 200 block of Linden Place, DeKalb, charged with a hate crime. The charges against the individuals listed are not a proof of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial in which it is the state’s burden to prove his or her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

SYCAMORE – A 79-year-old DeKalb woman was convicted Friday afternoon of a hate crime after she yelled numerous hateful words toward a black woman in traffic and then again in the DeKalb Walmart parking lot.

DeKalb County Judge Philip Montgomery found Aydene T. Militello, of the 200 block of Linden Place, guilty of a hate crime, and she's due back in the courthouse at 1:30 p.m. April 17 for potential sentencing. Her lawyer, Joe Palmer, has between now and then to file motions that could delay the sentencing.

Montgomery said in addition to testimony, which included the victim testifying Militello used expletives repeatedly and referred to “you and your people,” Militello was a brute when she took the stand Friday.

“I think the defendant showed her true color on the stand,” he said. “She was loud and yelling her responses at [Assistant State’s Attorney Alicia] Caplan.”

Police said in court records that Militello claimed a woman, who took the stand Friday morning cut her off in at East Hillcrest Drive and Sycamore Road. So Militello tailed her, then blocked her in her spot and approached the car yelling at her. The records show Militello tried to reach in the vehicle, at which point the woman rolled up her window and called police.

Montgomery said the victim, who’d also taken the stand, is a soon-to-be Northern Illinois University graduate who was bringing food to her boyfriend.

DeKalb County Chief Judge Robbin Stuckert signed a warrant with $3,000 bond attached, and court records show that after Militello was arrested and booked into the jail, she promptly posted $300 bail to be released.

Militello shook her head in court Friday afternoon as Montgomery convicted her. She’d waived a jury trial, surrendering herself to the bench’s opinion.

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