JOLIET, IL — A Joliet public school teacher was charged Wednesday with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated domestic battery in connection with the beating death of his wife. Rebecca Kazecki, 38, who died Tuesday, was also employed as a District 86 teacher in Joliet, at Gompers Junior High School. Prosecutors accused Michael Kazecki, also 38, of brutally beating her to death over a period of several days.

Michael Kazecki, a teacher for the past seven years at Washington Junior High School, appeared over a video feed from the Will County jail for Wednesday's bail hearing in Courtroom 305 of Judge Ben Braun. Prosecutors told the judge that Michael Kazecki punched, kicked and struck his wife over the course of three days, from Aug. 4 to 6. On Monday afternoon, the defendant called 911 to report that his wife was injured, according to courtroom testimony presented by the Will County State's Attorney's Office. Joliet police officers found the woman unconscious on the floor at their family's two-story house in the 700 block of McDonough Street.

Rebecca Kazecki never regained consciousness and she was "brain dead" from blunt force trauma to her head, prosecutors told the judge. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.) According to prosecutors, Michael Kazecki was extensively interviewed by detectives at the Joliet Police Department on Tuesday and wrote out a detailed statement confessing to beating his wife and causing her injuries.

The Kazecki home, image via John Ferak/Joliet Patch Editor The judge was also told by Assistant State's Attorney Jim Long that Michael Kazecki had been disciplining the oldest of the couple's three children several days ago and that when his wife intervened, he began beating her. One of the first-degree murder counts states that Kazecki "struck Rebecca Kazecki about her body, knowing such acts would cause death to Rebecca Kazecki …"

Long told Braun that the couple's three children, ages 5 -1/2, 9 and 11, are now in the temporary care of family friends. State's Attorney's Office spokesman Chuck Pelkie told Patch and other reporters that the children were interviewed as part of the investigation at Will County's Children's Advocacy Center.

Long The prosecutor asked Braun to set bail at $5 million for Michael Kazecki, given the violent nature of the alleged crime and the fact that he faces murder charges.

The defendant's private counsel, Nathaniel Tate of Joliet, asked the judge to set bail "at a reasonable amount," given that his client has no prior criminal history and that he is employed as a long-time teacher and former college professor in the Chicago area. "He's a public school teacher," Tate informed the judge.