Man pleads guilty to raping 2 women on canal trail in Joliet

A man has pleaded guilty to raping two women in southwest suburban Joliet.

Miguel Luna, 37, pleaded guilty Wednesday to the criminal sexual assault of two women along the Illinois and Michigan Canal Trail in 2015 and 2016, according to the Will County State’s Attorney’s office.

Luna was identified in connection with three sexual assaults after an attack on May 18, 2016, when he targeted a woman who knew a friend of his, prosecutors said. Luna attacked the woman in the area near Brandon Road, tied her up and sexually assaulted her.

Luna was identified by the mutual friend and DNA tests linked him to two other attacks.

The victim in that assault recently died, and the charges in her case were dropped in exchange for Luna’s guilty plea in the other two cases, the state’s attorney’s office said.

On May 21, 2016, Luna, wearing a ski mask, sunglasses and surgical gloves, grabbed a woman from behind while she was running on Frontage Road near Interstate 55. He put her into a chokehold and tied her up with shoelaces under the I-55 viaduct, where he sexually assaulted her, the office said. She was left tied under the viaduct until she was able to free herself.

About eight months later, on Sept. 6, 2015, Luna attacked another woman in the same area.

Luna jumped off a bike he was riding and grabbed a woman from behind on Brandon Road and Larkin Avenue. He dragged the woman into the woods, tied her up, and sexually assaulted her repeatedly for an hour and a half before letting her go, the office said.

In two of the attacks, Luna told the victims he had a knife, but never showed it.

Luna faces between 32 and 80 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced in July, according to the state’s attorney’s office.