A 57-year-old woman who deliberately steered her SUV into pedestrians on a River North sidewalk and later pinned a man against a gas pump has been sentenced to nine years in prison. Rolanda Wilder pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder and one count of aggravated battery for the April 6, 2024 attacks, which left one victim with two broken ribs and another with facial injuries from repeated punches.
The violence began shortly before 4 p.m. in the 200 block of West Chicago Avenue, where Wilder drove a Toyota RAV4 onto the sidewalk and directly at a 29-year-old woman who tried but failed to get out of the way, according to prosecutors as reported by CWB Chicago. From there, Wilder crossed Chicago Avenue to a BP station at 750 North Wells Avenue, got out of her vehicle, and punched a 19-year-old woman from Bloomington, Illinois, in the face multiple times.
The attack escalated further at the gas station. After a verbal confrontation with a 58-year-old man outside the BP, Wilder got back behind the wheel and drove into him, pinning him against a fuel pump and breaking two of his ribs, per prosecutors. When she abandoned the SUV and tried to walk away on foot, an unidentified bystander tackled her and held her on the ground until Chicago police arrived and took her into custody.
Police Statement Didn't Match What Prosecutors Later Alleged
In the immediate aftermath of the crash, the Chicago Police Department publicly described the incident as an accident, saying the driver had lost control of her vehicle and struck a woman on the sidewalk before hitting a man outside the gas station. Arrest reports and prosecutors later established a very different sequence: that Wilder had deliberately steered her SUV into pedestrians across two separate locations, according to the dossier's account of the case. It's a discrepancy that underscores how initial police statements following chaotic incidents can shift once video footage and detailed witness interviews are processed.
Following her arrest, Cook County Judge Charles Beach ordered Wilder held in jail pending trial at prosecutors' request, invoking provisions of Illinois's Pretrial Fairness Act that let judges detain defendants accused of serious violent threats without setting cash bail. Illinois eliminated cash bail statewide in September 2023, and the law requires prosecutors to petition judges directly when they believe a defendant poses a specific public safety risk.
Nine-Year Term Means Years Behind Bars Under State Sentencing Law
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Laura Ayala-Gonzalez accepted Wilder's negotiated guilty plea and imposed the nine-year sentence in exchange for her admissions to the two attempted-murder counts and the aggravated battery count. Under Illinois law, attempted first-degree murder is a Class X felony, the most serious non-capital offense category in the state's criminal code, carrying a mandatory prison range of 6 to 30 years with no possibility of probation.
Because Wilder's convictions fall under Illinois's Truth-in-Sentencing statute, she must serve at least 85% of her court-imposed term rather than qualifying for the standard 50% good-conduct credit many other offenders receive. Judge Ayala-Gonzalez's order reflects that requirement, and accounting for credit already earned during her time in Cook County Jail since her 2024 arrest, Wilder is expected to be released from state prison in November 2031.
What drove Wilder to attack multiple strangers in broad daylight remains an open question, with no motive disclosed in court filings or public statements tied to the case. The sentence closes out a prosecution that moved from a chaotic scene in one of River North's busiest commercial corridors to a guilty plea more than two years later, resolved without the need for a trial.
