Chicago police said Sunday that Luis Pantoja was charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated criminal sexual assault in the Belmont-Cragin attack last month.
The girl was found December 17 lying in a pool of blood in the back yard of a home. She was hospitalized in critical condition and was unable to communicate with police until two weeks later.
A resident told the Chicago Sun-Times he was going to sweep the snow from his rear walkway just after 8 a.m. that day and found the girl outside his back door. Blood was pooling in the snow around her head. Her pants had been yanked off. Her shoes were off her feet. She was all but unconscious, moving a little, but saying nothing.
Pantoja, who lives just blocks from the scene of the attack, was arrested on Friday "through the work of Chicago Police Detectives and the Great Lakes Fugitive Task Force," Chicago police said in a brief statement released on Sunday.
He appeared in Cook County criminal court briefly Sunday, but the bond hearing in his case was delayed until Tuesday. In the meantime, he was expected to be held in Cook County Jail without bail.
(The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.)
