Billy J. Cox, 80, formerly of Bull Valley.

A businessman convicted of trying to kill his wife in an hours-long attack at their mansion in Bull Valley in 2004 has been released from prison after serving less than 15 years.

The Northwest Herald first reported Monday morning of the release of 80-year-old Billy J. Cox.

Court records show Cox was convicted of attempted murder, a Class X felony, and aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony.

At trial, prosecutors said Cox attempted to kill his wife Carolyn over the course of six hours in their 15,000-square-foot home in Bull Valley on September 13, 2004.

Prosecutors said that Cox struck his wife at least three times with a blunt object.

Prosecutors noted that Cox was angry with his wife of 43 years because she had dinner with a male friend a month earlier.

Prosecutors said that Cox struck Carolyn the first time in their master bedroom, dragged her on a rug down their home’s hallway and into the garage, put her in the garage’s fourth bay, which contained a ladder, and then took her back inside after she asked to see a doctor.

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Cox then placed Carolyn in the foyer, gave her a pillow and overalls, claimed that he called an ambulance, and struck her again, according to prosecutors.

Carolyn crawled to the bathroom and vomited into the toilet. After Carolyn crawled into the hallway, Billy Cox took her to the garage and placed her in the back of their SUV, where he struck her a third time and left, prosecutors said.

Family members and friends had started to call, attempting to reach the couple, who were due to leave on a trip to France later that day.

Prosecutors said Cox carried his wife to the garage and placed her under the tailpipe of the running SUV.

He then locked the doors to the house and disabled the garage doors but Carolyn was able to crawl and shut off the running SUV and a running pickup truck in the closed garage.

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Police arrived at the home a short while later.

Cox claimed his wife, who had sustained serious injuries, had fallen off of a ladder in the garage while he was outdoors of their 11-acre property doing yard work.

After being convicted, Cox was sentenced in November 2007 to 20 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Cox, who is the founder of Exacto Inc., was released from the Illinois Department of Corrections on February 25 after serving almost 14 years and three months in the Dixon Correctional Center.

He will be on parole until February 2025, state records show.