The man accused of slashing the throat of a DePaul University alum near the school’s Lincoln Park campus six years ago and carjacking a woman in the neighborhood days earlier is heading back to prison for a long time.
On Friday, Judge Steven Watkins handed 38-year-old Adam Bramwell a 45-year prison sentence, according to court records.
Bramwell was a four-time convicted felon who went AWOL after being paroled in a gun case four months before the crime spree. He was still considered a parole “absconder” when, on July 13, 2019, Bramwell followed a 56-year-old woman into her garage in the 1800 block of North Fremont Street.
Wielding a knife, he forced her to close the garage door and hand over money and other items, prosecutors said. They said the woman tried to escape, but he caught her, tore her clothing, threw her to the ground, and choked her before stealing her Honda Fit.
Five days later, at 3:30 a.m. on July 18, a passerby found a recent DePaul University graduate unresponsive and bleeding from her neck in the 2300 block of North Halsted.
Prosecutors said Bramwell had parked a stolen SUV nearby and waited for the 22-year-old to walk past him. As she did, he dragged her into an alley, held a knife to her throat, and tried to shove her into the stolen car, officials claimed.
Like the earlier victim, she fought back. But Bramwell slashed her repeatedly. Prosecutors said he also tore out chunks of her hair before trying to run her over with the vehicle.
The passerby found the victim about 50 feet from where the attack occurred. Prosecutors said she lay there about 15 minutes before being found. Officials said the woman lost nearly half of her blood. She was hospitalized for a month, suffered two strokes along the way, and underwent multiple surgeries.
While Chicago police speculated at the time that the incident may have been sexually motivated, the woman was not sexually assaulted, and Bramwell was never charged with sex crimes in the case.
Shortly after the attack, police found the SUV and the hijacked Honda Fit burned out elsewhere in the city.
Authorities also linked Bramwell to another attempted carjacking of a woman on July 8, 2019. That victim managed to lock her doors in time to foil the attack.
CPD quickly released surveillance video of the attacker and identified Bramwell as their prime suspect. United States Marshals took Bramwell into custody about three weeks later after receiving a tip that he was riding a passenger bus north of Houston.
Now, all of those cases have been resolved with a set of plea agreements.
On July 18, the sixth anniversary of the DePaul attack, Bramwell pleaded guilty to attempted murder, attempted aggravated kidnapping with bodily harm, and multiple counts of aggravated battery. Judge Steven Watkins sentenced him on Friday to 25 years for the attempted murder with 20 consecutive years for the kidnapping charge. Watkins handed down a 10-year concurrent sentence for the battery charges.
Watkins also sentenced him to seven years for arson on Friday. In April, the judge handed him 12 years for aggravated vehicular hijacking and kidnapping for the Fremont Street attack. Those sentences will be served concurrently.
In addition to the gun case Bramwell was on parole for at the time of the crime spree, he received three concurrent prison terms in 2012: six years for residential burglary, six years for robbery, and three years for domestic battery causing bodily harm.
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