Woman describes husband’s attack with hatchet, hammer in Crystal Lake: ‘He wants to kill me,’ she tells jury

A woman tearfully detailed in a McHenry County courtroom Tuesday the day her husband hit her repeatedly with a hatchet and hammer in her Crystal Lake apartment.

Wilma Alex testified at the trial of Mark Alex, 60, during the man’s attempted murder trial. He is charged with attempted murder and aggravated domestic battery, each a Class X felony, as well as causing a child to be endangered and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. He has been in jail since his arrest in 2022.

During opening arguments Tuesday, Mark Alex’s attorney, Daniel Hofmann, did not deny that his client attacked his estranged wife. Instead, Hofmann told jurors that Mark Alex is not guilty of attempted murder but aggravated domestic battery.

Wilma Alex, 39, who has granted the Northwest Herald permission to name her, met Mark Alex, an American truck driver, in 2014 on a Philippine dating website. Wilma emigrated from the Philippines, and the two married in 2015. She had filed for divorce in 2021, about nine months before March 5, 2022, when she allowed Mark Alex to visit her and their son.

Now, more than three years later, Wilma Alex spent hours on the stand testifying against her now-former husband, much of the time sobbing, describing the attack and how she heard her son cry.

She said the visit started well. Mark Alex had brought over a speaker. She hooked it up to Bluetooth, and the couple happily danced and sang with their toddler son. Wilma made Mark’s favorite Philippine dish for dinner. He was then supposed to return to the place he was living in Mundelein. The next day, the family would meet up again to go to church.

Things changed, Wilma Alex testified, when he asked for her phone and she said no, fearing that he would take it away, as he’d done months before. She said she also refused when he asked if he could spend the night. And when she wouldn’t let him take their son that evening because he was drinking alcohol, she described how he beat her in the head with a hammer and hatchet and kicked her in the abdomen.

She said she’d gone into the bathroom after rejecting him. He came in with a calm face, locked the door, shushed her, raised the hammer above her and said, “I got this for you; I love you” – and began striking her.

She was in pain, screaming and begging him to stop. She told him that she would be with him and work on their marriage. She said anything to survive, she testified, thinking at the time, “He wants to kill me.”

When Mark opened the bathroom door, Wilma was on the floor and saw her 2-year-old son crying and saying, “Help, Mama.” At some point during the attack, she said she passed out and woke up to him trying to put a green liquid in her mouth. She feared it was poison.

She then “pretended to be unconscious to save my life, so he would stop hurting me.” She ran out of the bathroom and tried to escape the apartment. Wilma said there “was a lot of blood” coming from her head, and the hammer was stuck in her long hair. When he could not get it out, he took a hatchet out of his backpack and began hitting her with that, she said.

She fell to the ground, and he began kicking her in the abdomen. She found her son’s toy truck and tried to hit Mark Alex with it, bit his thumb and tried to grab his genitals, she said.

“I did anything I could to survive,” she said.

He set their son next to her, and she begged him not to hurt the boy, again saying she would be with him, wouldn’t report to police what he had done and “fix” their marriage. She asked to take a shower. Mark Alex said “no,” that he was going to kill himself, asked to say goodbye to his son and he left the apartment, she testified.

Jurors then heard Wilma Alex’s 911 call in which she said, “I need help. My husband tried to kill me.” Her child is heard in the background crying. She also sent a picture of her bloodied face to a friend with a note saying, “I need help. Mark tried to kill me.” Jurors also saw a police officer’s body cam footage showing her bloody on the floor leaning against a wall.

In opening arguments Tuesday, Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Romito said that in trying to kill Wilma, Mark Alex had “an all too common, timeless motive.”

“She was divorcing him, she was leaving him,” Romito said.

In the weeks after filing for divorce, while Mark Alex still lived in the apartment, police were called twice. Once was for a report of him kicking Wilma Alex in the abdomen, threatening to kill her and calling her names in front of their son. Another time, Wilma said, he took away her debit card, phone and her son’s passport and Social Security card, Romito said. She also had filed for orders of protection in the preceding months.

Before Mark went to her apartment March 5, 2022, when there no longer was an order of protection, he stopped at a hardware store and bought the hatchet and hammer.

Hofmann sought to poke holes in Wilma’s details of the attack and minimize her injuries. He said that day was “supposed to be a date night. They were talking about maintaining their marriage a week earlier.” The defense attorney said she had invited him over, said they could have sex and had been communicating leading up to that day. Mark Alex bought the speaker to listen to music and brought beer and margarita “for their date,” and she was dressed up, Hofmann said.

In the defense’s version of events, everyone was getting along when, without explanation, Wilma Alex went into another room and came out “yelling at him to leave,” saying she is not a scammer, prostitute or a monkey, names he had called her. She also said, “I did not marry you for a green card,” which he had accused her of, she later testified. Hofmann said they had a fight that day but said Mark Alex didn’t mean to strike her or intend to kill her.

Hofmann asked Wilma Alex about their arguments over money, including funds sent to the Philippines to build a home they could live in for half of the year. She acknowledged that, but she said the deal soured and she stopped talking to her sister over it.

Romito then asked Wilma Alex if the fight March 5, 2022, was over money, to which she answered no, it was over the phone and sex. The prosecutor also noted that Mark Alex filed paperwork to have exclusive rights of the house, and Wilma Alex never asked him for money after filing for divorce.

Testimony is due to continue Thursday.