Jail Inmate Who Died Faced Attempted Murder Charge In Frankfort

JOLIET, IL — The Will County Jail inmate who died this week after hanging himself June 13 with a bed sheet inside the Will County Jail had been arrested last month by Frankfort Police on charges of attempted murder. Court documents indicate that Joshua Scott Novak, 27, had cut his girlfriend's body with a knife May 17, causing permanent disfigurement.

On Wednesday, the Will County Sheriff's Office issued a press release announcing that one of their inmates had died from hanging in his jail cell, but the sheriff's office chose to withhold his identity.

On Thursday, Joliet Patch found documents sent by Will County Sheriff's Office employees to prosecutors and Will County Court officials advising that "Joshua Novak passed away this afternoon. Please forward to any other parties involved."

A day before Novak died, private Joliet criminal defense attorney Daniel Walsh filed a motion asking a judge to reduce his client's $750,000 bail, noting that his client was on life support at St. Joseph's Hospital in Joliet and "has limited brain activity and is unable to move."

Patch contacted Walsh Thursday but he declined to comment about the case.

Novak, 27, is formerly of Highland Park, Indiana, court documents indicate.

The Frankfort Police Department took him into custody May 17, and he died after spending about four weeks in the Will County Adult Detention Facility.

The jail facility on South Chicago Street in downtown Joliet is run by chief deputy Sheriff Dale Santerelli. His name is mentioned in a public corruption lawsuit filed against the Will County Sheriff's Office in May by a sergeant who uncovered a payroll scandal involving high-ranking members of Sheriff Mike Kelley's jail administration. The whistleblower was then demoted after bringing the alleged corruption to Santerelli's attention, the lawsuit contends.

Court documents indicate that on May 17, Novak entered the Frankfort dwelling of his 26-year-old ex-girlfriend, who had obtained an order of protection to keep him away from her, and that he showed up "with rope and cutting instruments."

The attempted murder charge states that he "cut open the abdomen" of the 26-year-old Frankfort woman "with a knife ... with the intent to kill" her.

The woman obtained an order of protection against Novak April 30, which is less than three weeks before Novak showed up at her place and attacked her repeatedly with a knife.

On April 29, "Joshua called me and left a voice mail message telling that I should not use my car because he put sugar in the gas tank," the order of protection petition reads. "I called the police. A cop came to my house, checked my gas tank and there was sugar in the tank."

Also on April 29, the woman wrote the court, "Joshua barged into my house and he came into my room begging me to take him back as his boyfriend. I woke up and he grabbed my neck and said, 'I hope you get herpes and if I ever see you in Highland I will murder you.

"I am afraid of bodily harm," the woman said in the order. "I am afraid that Joshua is going to escalate his behavior."