Man charged with stabbing, sexually assaulting and robbing ex-girlfriend

Angered that his ex-girlfriend refused to have sex with him, a 39-year-old Uptown man beat her, robbed her and sexually assaulted her last month while they were hanging out together at her apartment, Cook County prosecutors say.

Bail was set at $10,000 Wednesday for James Carter during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building where he faced felony counts of criminal sexual assault, domestic battery and robbery in connection with the Dec. 22 attack.

Prosecutors said Carter was drinking and smoking marijuana with the 30-year-old woman at her home that day when he asked her to have sex with him.

The woman, who had broken up with Carter earlier that year, said no and stood up to have a cigarette. That’s when Carter put her in a chokehold and pulled her to the ground, prosecutors said.

Carter allegedly bit the woman multiple times, punched her and stabbed her in the leg with a switchblade, causing the woman to suffer an eye fracture and injuries that required stitches.

After dragging her into a bedroom, Carter stole $150 in cash and two debit cards from her and then sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.

The woman called police after he left and went to a hospital for treatment.

An investigation found Carter tried to use her debit cards on three occasions, but was denied each time, prosecutors said. Surveillance cameras at the apartment building allegedly recorded him entering and leaving the apartment on the day of the attack.

Prosecutors said in court that Carter had been arrested for allegedly abusing the same woman in the past, but she declined to sign complaints against him. Police reports alleging abuse involving another woman also didn’t result in convictions.

Carter has three previous felony convictions, all drug-related, court records show.

An assistant public defender for Carter said he was an employee of the Cook County clerk’s office, but a spokesman for the clerk’s office would only say that a person with the same name and age was hired as a seasonal employee in 2018, and had not worked for the office since.

Carter’s public defender argued that the case was a “he said, she said at this point” and said Carter had “no violence in his [criminal] background; nothing but drugs.”

Judge Mary Marubio ordered his bail set at $10,000 with GPS monitoring as a condition of his release and sternly warned Carter not to talk with the woman by any means, warning that he would spend the rest of the case in jail if he did.

His next court date was set for Feb. 18.