A 50-year-old Woodstock man pleaded guilty Thursday in connection with a 2019 attack during which he used a hammer to strike two women on a Crystal Lake bike path, sending both of them to the hospital.

Angel Reinaldo-Cardoza entered a blind guilty plea to attempted murder, the most serious of the charges he faced, as well as aggravated battery. McHenry County Judge Michael Coppedge accepted the plea and set a sentencing hearing for 1:30 p.m. Sept. 2.

Attempted murder is a Class X felony typically punishable by as many as 30 years in prison. Because the plea was blind, there was no agreement with prosecutors on the length of sentence Reinaldo-Cardoza could serve.

Ahead of the defendant entering his plea, Coppedge warned Reinaldo-Cardoza that he could face deportation or expulsion from the country following his sentence because he is not a U.S. citizen.

He will remain in custody at the McHenry County Jail awaiting his sentencing hearing. His case was previously scheduled to go to trial later this month.

Reinaldo-Cardoza was arrested Sept. 27, 2019, on multiple charges of attempted murder, armed violence and aggravated battery.

The sun still was out when one of the women Reinaldo-Cardoza attacked was walking home along the bike trail near the intersection of Oak Street and Crystal Ridge Drive north of Route 176.

The woman, Sarah Sullivan, who spoke to the Northwest Herald Thursday and agreed for her name to be used, said in a phone interview she does not understand why she was targeted, but thinks Reinaldo-Cardoza was looking for someone who was walking as opposed to cycling.

The two crossed paths and after a brief exchange and as she began to walk away, Reinaldo-Cardoza grabbed her by the wrist, she previously told the Northwest Herald. Reinaldo-Cardoza then reached behind his back and pulled out a hammer, striking her in the head, prosecutors said in court Thursday.

Reinaldo-Cardoza did not ask for valuables or attempt to look inside of a bag that he had with him at the time, Sullivan said.

“I have no idea [why]. And I will probably have to live the rest of my life not really understanding. I can’t imagine it was personal,” Sullivan said. “... This was very premeditated. It was a well thought out kind of crime. People don’t hide hammers in their back pocket. This was not an accident.”

Another woman who was riding her bicycle intervened, suffering several blows from Reinaldo-Cardoza’s hammer, court records show.

Both women were taken to Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital and released that same evening. Both women have made strong physical recoveries but still suffer emotional trauma from the attack they described as random.

“There is always residual issues,” Sullivan said.

Both women attended Thursday’s hearing and said they plan to speak to the court at the September sentencing procedure.

As Reinaldo-Cardoza fled the area, he left behind items that police later used to help identify and find him. Both women identified the man as the attacker, Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Schuman said in court.

“It’s always very difficult to imagine [the other woman] coming upon me on the ground and what that must have looked like,” Sullivan said.

McHenry County Conservation District police and members of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team later used a warrant to arrest Reinaldo-Cardoza at his Woodstock home.

Reinaldo-Cardoza has remained at the McHenry County Jail on a $500,000 bond.

“I’m grateful for the fact we have a guilty plea, that that man stood up in court and admitted he did. It is very vindicating,” Sullivan said. “... It’s very strange. That’s when some of this really started to hit me, is when I realized this guy was willing to stand up in open court and say yes he tried to kill me.”