Prosecutors say a man committed a home invasion in Fox Lake while armed with a knife and threatened to kill a resident, who was inside the home, with the knife.
Andrew J. Bultema, 42, of Waukegan, was charged with home invasion while armed with a dangerous weapon and criminal trespass to residence with a person present.
The Fox Lake Police Department responded to a 911 call of a suspicious person who broke into a home in the 100 block of Devlin Road on May 7.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Kelse Banks said the victim told officers a man was in his apartment and had threatened to kill him.
Officers searched the residence but were unable to locate the suspect.
The victim had been sitting when the suspect, later identified as Bultema, came through an open window into the apartment, Banks said.
Bultema picked up a chair and held it over his head, telling the victim he was going to kill him, Banks said.
Banks said Bultema put the chair down but pulled out a knife and repeatedly told the victim he was going to kill him.
The victim told the suspect multiple times to leave his home and he eventually left.
Officers searched the area and located Bultema nearby after the victim provided a description, Banks said.
The victim positively identified him as the suspect.
A public defender for Bultema said his client believes the whole incident was “just a misunderstanding.”
Bultema had just been released from the Illinois Department of Corrections on April 20.
He had served a one-year sentence for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in Cook County, state records show.
Lake County Judge Theodore Potkonjak ordered Bultema held on a $350,000 bond.
Bultema remains held in the Lake County Jail and would need to post $35,000 cash in order to be released.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 6.