To view original article click here
Chicago Tribune
January 1, 1997
Author: Pamela Cytrynbaum, Tribune Staff Writer.
![[]](https://images.newsbank.com/infoweb/agg/shim.gif){kind=spacer}
A Cook County Circuit judge denied bail Tuesday for a man accused of holding his former girlfriend hostage in a Skokie shopping mall, ruling that Lorenzo Davis Jr. “poses a real and present threat to the victim in this case and to the public at large.” Associate Judge Daniel Gillespie also granted a request by the assistant public defender representing Davis that Davis undergo a full psychiatric evaluation to determine if he is fit to stand trial. He set Jan. 10 for a preliminary hearing in the case
“We’re very pleased the judge denied bail in this case,” said Assistant State’s Atty. Steve Goebel. During the hearing in a crowded Skokie courtroom, Goebel said Davis had a history of other incidents in which women sought court orders of protection or filed abuse reports with police against him.
Davis, 31, was charged with 10 felony counts, including aggravated sexual assault and kidnapping, after his surrender Friday night at Old Orchard Shopping Center, where police say he held his 27-year-old former girlfriend at gunpoint for eight hours.
During the court hearing, Goebel claimed Davis had “terrorized” the woman by stalking and abusing her in the months before and during the mall incident. At the time of the hostage ordeal, Goebel said, Davis was on probation after serving 10 months in prison following his conviction on charges of firing shots into the car of another woman.
Goebel said that after Davis surrendered, he said of Friday’s alleged victim that “he wished he’d killed her and himself, and, if given another chance, he would kill her.” Davis’ attorney, Joann Dinneen, said Tuesday that Davis “will plead not guilty” and that “he denies all the charges.”
She said Davis has been treated for depression for the past year and is taking Prozac. Dinneen also said her client had attended the College of DuPage and was operating a carpet-cleaning business out of a van that was “doing well until this.”
Police said Davis burst into the Mario Tricoci Hair Salon & Day Spa at Old Orchard carrying a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. Police said that after firing shots into the ceiling, Davis ordered customers and other employees to leave the shop and forced his former girlfriend into a rear storage room, where they claim he held her at gunpoint until they negotiated his surrender.
Davis was charged Saturday with four counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, two counts of kidnapping, and one count each of aggravated stalking, armed violence, burglary and criminal defacement of a firearm.
The bond hearing was originally slated for Monday, but was delayed so Davis could undergo an initial psychological examination at Cook County Jail.’s Cermak Hospital. At that time, Skokie Police Sgt. Robert Mason said Davis was under a suicide watch.
Record Number: CTR9701010220