Man convicted of killing wife years ago released after domestic battery arrest in McHenry County

A Wonder Lake man who prosecutors said was convicted in 2002 of killing his wife has been released from McHenry County jail with minimal restrictions after a new arrest for allegedly domestic battery.

Authorities allege that last Wednesday, Charles Gozzola, 49, “struck [the victim] in the head with a water bottle and pulled her into a vehicle against her will” in the parking lot of Planet Fitness in Crystal Lake. Police in Wonder Lake said authorities found the car at a local residence and forced their way in after failing to make contact and fearing for the woman’s safety.

After Gozzola was allowed pretrial release, prosecutors allege, he returned home, and police were called to the residence again after a report of loud arguing. Prosecutors filed another petition Friday seeking either to add strict mandatory conditions or detain Gozzola.

Gozzola is charged with domestic battery/making physical contact, a Class A misdemeanor, according to police and McHenry County court records.

At his first appearance Thursday before Judge Jennifer Johnson, Assistant State’s Attorney Sophia Dinkle argued he be detained pretrial because he is a danger to the alleged victim and the community.

Dinkle detailed what witnesses reported they saw in the parking lot of Planet Fitness just after noon Wednesday.

They said Gozzola was pushing, shoving and grabbing the woman, threw a water bottle at her, and was “chest bumping” her to get into the vehicle, the prosecutor said.

Dinkle also said Thursday his criminal history includes a murder conviction for which he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. (It has been common for convicted criminals to be released before completing their entire sentences.) He also was convicted of domestic violence involving an ex-wife in Cook County, Dinkle said.

According to the motion filed Friday by prosecutors, set to be argued Tuesday, there were three witnesses who reported seeing the woman being pushed and shoved into the vehicle “against her will.”

The witnesses do not know Gozzola or the woman, the motion said.

The state’s motion also cited his 2002 conviction of second-degree murder in the death of his wife.

Gozzola “has a violent history,” Assistant State’s Attorney Brian Miller wrote in the motion, adding that “hours after being released from custody” Thursday, Gozzola went to Wonder Lake residence and “engaged in a violent argument.”

The argument “was heated enough” that two people in the area “believed that it was necessary to call 9-1-1,” the motion states. “This is a violent situation in which [the alleged victim] is in real danger.”

The woman has not cooperated with authorities, they have said. Because his pretrial release did not include conditions that he not have contact with her, he was not arrested when police were called to the residence later that day.

If Gozzola is not detained Tuesday, prosecutors will argue that he should be under mandatory conditions, including surrendering any firearms to police and be restricted from access to the alleged victim. Miller also petitioned that Gozzola be under direct supervision of probation and be fitted with a GPS ankle monitor.

At the initial hearing earlier Thursday, Gozzola’s defense attorney, Clay Mitchell, said witnesses in the Crystal Lake incident Wednesday were mistaken about what they thought they saw. Gozzola had just learned his mother had a stroke and was in the hospital and he was hurrying the woman to the vehicle, Mitchell said.

When police arrived later at the Wonder Lake home, they kicked opened the door; the defense attorney called the police’s actions “entirely ridiculous.”

The alleged victim was in the courtroom Thursday and testified she was not afraid of Gozzola and said he did not harm her that day or at any other time.

Mitchell said Gozzola owns a trucking company and will lose his business if he is in jail.

Johnson said Thursday she did not find probable cause to hold him pretrial and released him with minimal conditions.

According to a Chicago Tribune article dated Jan. 20, 2000, a man by the name of Charles C. Gozzola, who was then 25, was accused in Cook County of killing his wife, Beth Gozzola, in their apartment in Northfield Township near Glenview, and attempting to make it look like their young son was to blame.