Sex offender charged with Wicker Park home invasion where woman was stabbed

A man sentenced to 30 years in prison for the rape of woman two decades ago in downstate Illinois has been accused of breaking into the home of another woman and stabbing her earlier this year in Wicker Park.

Lester Johnson, 53, was arrested Thursday in Broadview and is charged with breaking into a home on May 28 in the 1300 block of North Bell Avenue and stabbing a 24-year-old woman in her leg, according to Chicago police.

Johnson is accused of following the woman for several blocks as she walked to her home at night on May 27th, Cook County prosecutors said at a bail hearing Friday. The woman waited in the lobby of her apartment building for him to pass and then went upstairs to go to bed.

Shortly after midnight, video surveillance recorded Johnson walking behind the building and using a bandana to wipe his face, prosecutors said. The woman told investigators she heard the sound of her bedroom door opening and awoke to find Johnson holding a knife to her throat. He told her to get on her stomach and to put her hands behind her back before he sat on top of her to pin her to the bed.

When the woman heard the sound of plastic rustling, she tried to grab the knife from Johnson and suffered a cut to her hand that severed several tendons, prosecutors said.

Johnson stabbed the woman in the thigh and ran off. The woman went to the bedroom of her sleeping roommate and was taken to a hospital for treatment, authorities said.

Police found a bandana and a package of zip ties next to the woman’s bed and forensic testing of DNA taken from the bandana resulted in a “strong association to DNA belonging to [Johnson],” Assistant State’s Attorney Rachel Mabbott said in court.

Johnson faces a felony count of a home invasion that caused injury and a felony count of a failure to register as a sex offender, authorities said. He also faces misdemeanor counts of violating an order of protection and telephone harassment.

Judge Stephanie Miller ordered Johnson held without bail and scheduled his next court date for Nov. 15.

Johnson is required to register as a sex offender due to a 1999 conviction for the aggravated criminal sexual assault of a 22-year-old woman in Champaign County, prosecutors said. In that case, Johnson entered the woman’s bedroom while she slept, told her to lay on her stomach and tied her hands behind her back before raping her.

Prosecutors said Johnson was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

In November 2017, he registered at an address in Chicago, but when detectives went looking for him at the address while investigating the May incident, they learned he had not lived at that address for some time, according to court records. He was eventually found and taken into custody at a home in Broadview.