A man who authorities said “maliciously attacked” a woman working in a Woodstock gas station on Wednesday after being told they were not hiring has been detained pretrial in the county jail.
Austin Silverman, 29, of Woodstock, is charged with attempted murder, a Class X felony, as well as aggravated battery in a public place and criminal damage to property, according to the criminal complaint filed in McHenry County.
Police responded at 10:16 a.m. Wednesday to the gas station where they found Silverman, who told responding officers that he “intended to kill,” according to a news release from Woodstock police.
Silverman is also accused of damaging property in the gas station, including glass shelves, vape pens and cartridges, according to the complaint.
Silverman, who said he has lived in a Thresholds mental health facility in Woodstock for the last eight years, made his first court appearance Friday.
Assistant States Attorney Justin Neubauer argued that he be detained because he is a danger to the woman as well as the community, including those who live with him at Thresholds.
Neubauer said Silverman asked the clerk at the Shell gas station located in the 100 block of North Eastwood Drive if they were hiring. When she responded they were not, he walked behind the counter and beat her “maliciously” for more than two minutes.
The attack was recorded on a video that Judge Cynthia Lamb watched on Friday. He placed his “entire body weight against her,” hit her head into the wall three times, punched and kicked her and beat her with a wooden club she had tried to defend herself with, Neubauer said. He also pressed the club against the woman’s neck.
He stopped beating her, Neubauer said, when Silverman realized he could actually kill her. Silverman then left the station and smoked a cigarette in the parking lot. He put out the cigarette into a gas pump in an attempt to blow up the gas station, Neubauer said Silverman told police.
Afterward, he tried to go back into the station because, Silverman told police, he was going to “finish her.” He told police he was going to go back in and kill her, Neubauer said.
But, by then, the woman “was able to hobble to the door and lock it. That is the only thing that saved her,” Neubauer said.
Neubauer said he talked to the woman on Friday and she is still in the hospital and receiving medical treatment, including care for an arm in which she has no feeling.
Noting the woman was a “complete stranger” to Silverman and “given the level of brutality,” Neubauer said “anything could set him off” and no one is safe from him.
Assistant Public Defender David Giesinger said Silverman has no criminal history and has lived in Thresholds, where he has had no issues. He could return to the facility on home confinement and under court services supervision, Giesinger said.
In detaining Silverman, Lamb noted the reasoning behind the alleged attack, the prosecutor’s argument and what she saw in photographs and a video, saying, “He has no problem harming anyone.”
Silverman is due back in court Wednesday.
If convicted of the Class X felony, Silverman could be sentenced to six to 30 years in prison.