A Cook County grand jury on May 4 handed down a 20-count indictment against Jeffrey Gurley, the man accused of stabbing a Countryside man multiple times, strangling him and then hanging him from a bar in the closet of a Brookfield apartment last month.
Gurley, 26, is charged with one count of attempted murder; six counts of aggravated kidnapping and six counts of aggravated battery; two counts each of home invasion, residential burglary and kidnapping, and one count of armed violence.
He will be arraigned at a hearing scheduled for May 24 at the Maybrook courthouse in Maywood.
Gurley took a bus to Brookfield on April 11, calling an ex-girlfriend to let her know he was on his way. Frightened because of past death threats against her by Gurley, the woman went to her apartment on April 12 with her stepbrother to gather some belongings. She stayed outside while he went in.
When her stepbrother did not return after several minutes and did not respond to calls to his phone, the woman called police, who arrived to find Gurley inside the apartment. Police also reported finding the womanfs 34-year-old stepbrother bleeding profusely from several stab wounds and hanging from a belt inside a closet.
The victim survived the attack and remains at Loyola University Medical Center. Police, however, have been unable to interview him.
Gurley is being held without bond at Cook County Jail. He has an extensive arrest record, including convictions for drug and weapons offenses. He served time at the Taylor County Detention Center in Campbellsville, Ky., where he met a female jail employee with whom he started a relationship.
It was that former jail employee Gurley, who was on probation at the time of the attack, went to see in Brookfield.
