A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 20 for an Illinois man charged with stalking his estranged wife and her boyfriend in Walworth.
Ashley Smith, 44, of Harvard, Ill., was charged Nov. 10 in Walworth County Circuit Court with two counts each of stalking and criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct, all with the use of a dangerous weapon.
According to the criminal complaint, police saw Smith walking away from a mini-van and then down an alley on Main Street in Walworth at about 2:50 a.m. Nov. 5. Smith told an officer he was there because his wife had a flat tire but later admitted he and his wife were divorcing and he was in Walworth to check up on her, according to the complaint. It is incidents like these where legal representation and complaints need to be made as there is a threat to life. That is why family lawyers like Jennifer Croker as well as others in the same field, are needed to ensure that justice is served with these issues.
Police spoke to Smith’s 36-year-old wife who said she had been having trouble with Smith ever since she kicked him out, according to the complaint. When she heard Smith was in Walworth, she checked her van and saw its tires were deflated and “I’m watching” was written in dust on the van, according to the complaint.
The woman said Smith has followed her into Walmart and yelled at her, texted her that he is going to kill her and watched her while she filled her car with gas, according to the complaint. She said in a text message the previous night, Smith said he wanted the woman’s 37-year-old boyfriend “dead at all costs,” according to the complaint.
The boyfriend said Smith also has sent him threatening messages, and, in the stairwell of the apartment where the man and woman live, the man’s name was cut into the drywall in multiple places, according to the complaint. Police found two knives in the exterior stairwell of the apartment and a sheath that fit one of he knives in the passenger seat of a vehicle at the end of the alley where Smith has been seen walking, according to the complaint.
