Police: Man who tried to kill woman near Joliet arrested in Louisiana

A Louisiana man was charged with attempting to murder an ex-girlfriend that he sexually assaulted during a home invasion earlier this year in unincorporated Will County.

Deputies responded at 8:48 a.m. Oct. 28 to a call of an unresponsive person bleeding inside a home in the 2400 block of Meridian Drive in unincorporated Joliet Township, according to the Will County sheriff’s office. When they arrived, deputies found 35-year-old Stephanie Evans covered in blood on a bedroom floor with several puncture wounds and various other injuries. She had been shot several times in both the head and abdomen.

Christopher Gills, 39, who dated Evans six months prior to the incident, was eventually identified as a person of interest, police said. Numerous subpoenas and search warrants were then issued to further the investigation.

Gills, who lives in Houma, Louisiana, was ultimately placed at the scene of the crime after the ski mask he left behind tested positive for his DNA, the sheriff’s office said.

On Thursday, detectives traveled to Houma and, with the assistance of local police, took Gills into custody without incident on a $1 million warrant, police said. He was charged with felony counts of attempted first-degree murder, home invasion and aggravated criminal sexual assault.

Gills is being held at the Houma Police Department, pending transfer to another facility, the sheriff’s department said. An extradition hearing regarding the transfer of his custody to the Will County sheriff’s department is expected.