Timeline of Timothy Hayden’s criminal record includes murder, parole violations
Before Timothy Hayden was charged in the stabbing death of his wife, Tracy Hayden, in a Belleville restaurant and pub in 1990, he was arrested 35 times and faced over 50 offenses, including four cases involving Tracy Hayden, whose maiden name was Fogarty.
Timothy Hayden was released from state prison in January 2018 after serving half of his 55-year sentence for murder. He subsequently was arrested in January 2019 on a parole violation charge and returned to state prison. Hayden, 60, was released from state prison on Friday morning, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Here’s a roundup of his record:
Jan. 26, 1985: Before Timothy Hayden and Tracy Fogarty were married, Hayden was accused of punching her in the face and was charged with battery after he was arrested at 2:30 a.m. at his Town Hall Road home near Belleville. He also was accused of breaking out a rear door window of a St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department squad car. The battery charge was dismissed but the charge of resisting a police officer was included in a later plea negotiations, according to court records cited by the News-Democrat.
July 13, 1985: Another battery charge was filed against Hayden after he was accused of striking Tracy Fogarty in the face with his fist and on the leg and arm with a belt. This battery charge was dismissed on Aug. 5, 1985, at Fogarty’s request, according to court records cited by the News-Democrat.
June 7, 1990: Tracy Hayden filed for divorce and was granted a temporary order of protection from her husband.
June 21, 1990: The order of protection for Tracy Hayden was extended until Oct. 1, 1990.
June 24, 1990: Timothy Hayden was arrested on a charge of violating the order of protection. He was accused of threatening bodily harm to Tracy Hayden while allegedly intoxicated at the St. Clair Country Club pool in Belleville, according to court records cited by the News-Democrat.
June 30, 1990: For the second time in a week, Hayden was arrested on a charge of violating the order of protection. He was accused of entering the Signal Hill Boulevard home of Pat Fogarty, the father of Tracy Hayden, and harassing his wife there. He was arrested at 2:30 a.m., according to court records cited by the News-Democrat.
July 5, 1990: Tracy Hayden testified during a hearing that Timothy Hayden had threatened her with a knife and she feared for the safety of her two children. She left him on May 31, 1990, and went to a shelter for women “because he had threatened me if anyone broke up this family, he’d kill them and anyone who had anything to do with it,” according to court records cited by the News-Democrat.
July 27, 1990: Timothy Hayden fatally stabs his wife shortly after 1 a.m. inside the former Dundee’s restaurant and pub at 6401 W. Main St. in Belleville. Hayden was subdued by others inside the bar until police arrived. Tracy Hayden, who had at least six knife wounds on her chest, abdomen and thigh, was pronounced dead at 1:44 a.m. at Memorial Hospital in Belleville. Tracy Hayden had gone to Dundee’s to meet with a group of high school friends. Witnesses told police that Timothy Hayden went to his wife, who was sitting with friends, and asked to talk to her. When she told him “no,” he pushed her off her chair, witnesses said.
Timothy Hayden stabbed his wife with a knife he had received from an employee at a nearby bar. He had told the employee he needed a knife to fix his bike. When the employee gave him a butter knife, he said he needed a sharper one and she gave him what has been described as a butcher knife with about a 6-inch blade.
April 16, 1991: A jury finds Timothy Hayden guilty of first-degree murder for killing 29-year-old Tracy Hayden. Members of her family cried when the verdict was announced. After Timothy Hayden left the courtroom in shackles, he made obscene gestures with each hand while in the hallway.
June 19, 1991: Then-St. Clair County Associate Judge James Radcliffe gives Timothy Hayden a 55-year sentence for killing Tracy Hayden.
1990s to 2000s: Timothy Hayden unsuccessfully tried to get a new trial. At one point, he argued that his wife fell on the knife during a struggle in the bar.
Oct. 26, 2011: The domestic violence center operated by the St. Clair County State’s Attorney’s Office is named after Tracy Fogarty, using her maiden name.
Jan. 26, 2018: Timothy Hayden was released from the Menard state prison on parole after serving half of his 55-year sentence for first-degree murder. Under current state law, a person convicted first-degree murder must serve 100 percent of the sentence imposed.
March 20, 2018: Fifty-three days after he was released from state prison, Timothy Hayden was served with a mandatory supervised release ruling from his parole agent to stay away from a woman who had filed an order of protection. Her name was redacted from state reports obtained by Belleville News-Democrat The store cashier told the Greenville Police Department that Hayden had been giving her $20 tips, gift cards and a $140 watch. He also invited her to a candlelight dinner at his house. The woman had filed for an order of protection on March 19, 2018, so Hayden would leave her alone.
April 2, 2018: The woman and Timothy Hayden told a Bond County judge that they reached an agreement that Hayden must stay 500 feet or more away from the woman or her place of employment.
May 12, 2018: The Greenville Police Department reported that Timothy Hayden told people in a gym that he had been jailed because he had run over three black people and killed them. He also said he was jailed a second time because he stabbed someone. On May 18, 2018, Hayden’s parole agent told him he no longer is allowed to attend the gym.
Aug. 21, 2018: A baggie of marijuana was found in Hayden’s home on South Third Street in Greenville.
Dec. 11, 2018: A second Bond County woman filed for an order of protection against Timothy Hayden, who on the day before had filed for an order of protection against the woman, whose name was redacted from reports obtained by the BND. When Greenville Police Department officers told Hayden that he could face arrest regarding a complaint about Facebook messages he sent to the woman and her daughter, Hayden “became very upset” and told the officers they would have to kill him before he would go back to jail. He threw his phone, flexed his muscles and told officers he had worked out for 27 ½ years in prison and is in better shape than anyone who would try to arrest him.
Dec. 19, 2018: Timothy Hayden’s parole agent gave Hayden a mandatory supervised release ruling to stay away from the woman who had filed an order of protection.
Dec. 29, 2018: Timothy Hayden told Greenville Police Department officers that if the woman who filed the order of protection accused him of domestic battery, he would shoot her. As he said this, he made his hands into the shape of a gun and put his hands to his head. Hayden called police to say that he and the woman had been in a verbal argument and that she had left his home at 4 a.m. “Parolee was advised if anything happens to the victim he was suspect #1,” said the Illinois Department of Corrections parole violation report. This date would have been Tracy Hayden’s 58th birthday.
Dec. 31, 2018: Both Timothy Hayden and the woman again file for emergency orders of protection against each other. A judge rules in favor of the woman and denies the request filed by Hayden. The judge reviewed six different order of protection cases involving Hayden. “The court … finds that the balance of credibility, competing claims and hardships weighs” in favor of the woman.
Jan. 6, 2019: Greenville Police Department officers responded to Timothy Hayden’s home at 5:13 a.m. regarding “domestic trouble” between Hayden and the woman. Officers found that the glass door that leads from the kitchen to the back door of the house was shattered. The woman told officers that her right hand was cut when Hayden, who is listed at 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, had slammed the glass door on her after they had returned from a Litchfield bar. The woman told police that Hayden would not give her phone back. She told the News-Democrat that she did not need to go to the hospital for the cut.
Jan. 9, 2019: Timothy Hayden was arrested and taken to the Bond County Jail, nearly a year after he had been released from the Menard Correctional Center on the banks of the Mississippi River near Chester. He had been free from incarceration for 347 days.
Jan. 16, 2019: Bond County judge issues a two-year order of protection stating that Timothy Hayden must stay away from the Bond County woman who had sought protection from him.
March 13, 2019: The Illinois Prisoner Review Board revoked Timothy Hayden’s parole. The board said that Hayden violated two conditions of his parole agreement: He had contact with a Bond County woman while she had an emergency order of protection against him and he did not get counseling for substance abuse, anger management, mental health and domestic violence.
Jan. 17, 2020: Timothy Hayden was released again from prison, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. He was released at 6:30 a.m. from the Lawrence Correctional Center, a state prison about 120 miles east of Belleville near the Indiana border.
Sources: Belleville Police Department reports, St. Clair County Court records, Bond County Court records, Belleville News-Democrat file articles, Tracy Hayden’s autopsy report, Illinois Department of Corrections records and Illinois Prisoner Review Board records.
This story was originally published January 17, 2020 at 5:01 AM.
