Man hurt in Halloween hammer attack

LOCKPORT TOWNSHIP -- A man police say has already survived one attempted murder was the victim of a recent attack right out of a horror movie.

While the costume was more like something from the "Friday The 13th" series, it was around 5:30 p.m. on Halloween when the 37-year-old man opened the door of his residence on Highland Avenue to find a man wearing a white hockey mask carrying a hammer, Will County Sheriff's police said.

The masked man who was approximately 5-foot 9-inches tall and wearing a black or blue jacket, hit the man on the head once. A neighbor who heard "a big bang" looked outside to see the man in the hockey mask run east and then head south on Farrell Road.

Approximately 10 minutes later, a sheriff's deputy arrived and found the man "to have an approximately three-inch laceration...about the forehead that was bleeding profusely." Coincidentally, the deputy had arrived at the residence because Romeoville police had asked him to find the victim regarding an internet harassment complaint that had been filed against him.

The victim refused an ambulance but went with a relative to Silver Cross Hospital where doctors found he had suffered a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain. He was transferred to Loyola Medical Center in Maywood in stable condition, reports said.

On July 24, the man had met with his wife at his Lockport Township pet shop to discuss a custody agreement as the couple is divorcing after 12 years of marriage. Sheriff's police said the pair argued and the 31-year-old woman used a paring knife to cut a four-inch slice across his throat and stab his head and arm.

Nicole Sodt was jailed that night on an aggravated domestic battery charge, but the Will County state's attorney's office reviewed the case and approved an additional charge of attempted first-degree murder a few days later. She remains held at the county jail on $750,000 bond.

Sheriff's police said the victim's estranged in-laws contacted Romeoville police after he allegedly sent "threatening messages" over a social networking Web site. Both that incident and the attack remain under investigation.