COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A man claiming to be deaf when he announced the robbery of a Wicker Park flower shop with pen and paper and then stabbed a shop employee has been sentenced to two decades behind bars.
Alexander Hampton, 26, was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for the 2012 attempted murder of a Wicker Park flower shop worker, prosecutors said.
Hampton, of the 3300 block of West Douglas Boulevard, walked into the Asrai Garden floral shop, 1935 W. North Ave., on Feb. 16, 2012, acting as if he was looking to buy some flowers, prosecutors said.
When Hampton indicated he was deaf, a 28-year-old flower shop work handed him a piece of paper and a pen so he could tell her what he was looking for, prosecutors said.
At first, Hampton's note relayed that he wanted to buy flowers for his girlfriend. But instead of writing down a list of flowers or requesting an arrangement, Hampton scrawled an order demanding that the flower shop worker perform a sex act on him, prosecutors said.
The store employee told Hampton to get out, prosecutors said. But he grabbed her around the neck, choking the woman until she began to lose consciousness.
When the flower shop worker regained consciousness, Hampton was standing over her with a paring knife, prosecutors said. She gave him $100. But it wasn't enough.
The two struggled, prosecutors said.
Hampton fished an iPod and a pocket knife out of the woman's purse and stabbed her in the neck with the knife, prosecutors said.
She escaped to the bathroom, locked the door and called police.
When police arrived, Hampton was gone, prosecutors said. However, the victim gave a description of her attacker that included his Tweety Bird tattoo.
The detective investigating the flower shop stabbing recognized the tattoo because he'd stopped Hampton a few weeks earlier.
Hampton pleaded guilty to attempted murder Wednesday before Cook County Judge James Obbish.
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