Man pleads guilty to stabbing couple in bed during Naperville home invasion

A Naperville man has pleaded guilty to stabbing a husband and wife while they slept during a 2015 home invasion in the west suburb.

Zachary Machnikowski, 21, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of attempted first-degree murder and one count of home invasion for the March 31, 2015, attack, according to a statement from the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office. Judge Liam Brennan accepted the plea.

DuPage County state’s attorney’s office

About 1:15 a.m., Machnikowski entered the home on Iroquois Avenue in Naperville, took a large knife from the kitchen, and went upstairs to the bedroom, prosecutors said. He attacked the couple as they were sleeping in their bed, stabbing the husband first and then the wife. When the husband tried to fight off the attack, Machnikowski ran away.

“This morning, Zachary Machnikowski admitted that in the middle of the night, he broke into an innocent couple’s home, armed himself with a large kitchen knife, went upstairs and savagely attacked them while they slept,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert B. Berlin said in the statement. “I can’t even begin to imagine the horror the couple must have felt when they were awoken in their own bedroom by a knife-wielding intruder.”

Machnikowski is set to appear in court on July 25 for a pre-sentencing hearing, according to prosecutors. He faces a sentence between 12 and 60 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.