Two males accused within the killing of a Norwood Park man they met on a courting app tried to make use of the 63-year-old man’s playing cards and telephone to make hundreds of {dollars} in purchases and withdraw cash after they beat him and left him for lifeless in his basement house, prosecutors mentioned.
Decide William Fahy ordered them held Saturday.
“I can’t overlook the horrifying nature of this crime,” Fahy mentioned throughout the listening to. “To name this a violent crime is an understatement.”
Jefferson Javier Ubilla-Delgado, 29, and Geiderwuin Bello Morales, 21, are charged with homicide and aggravated theft of somebody over 60 years previous, based on Chicago police.
Bello Morales had been sporting a Division of Homeland Safety ankle monitor on the time of the killing after he was arrested on Jan. 12 and charged with a misdemeanor depend of assault for allegedly “gesturing towards” a 12-year-old woman to lure her to return over to his automobile, based on courtroom paperwork. He’s due again in courtroom Feb. 25 in that case.
The 2 spoke by means of an interpreter in courtroom Saturday and nodded in response to Fahy’s questions, solely talking amongst themselves briefly earlier than their lawyer and Fahy intervened.
The sufferer, 63-year-old George Levin, had organized to fulfill with the boys by means of the courting app Grindr, prosecutors mentioned.
Ubilla-Delgado was arrested Wednesday and mentioned Bello Morales had crushed Levin and took his telephone and playing cards.
The courting app on Levin’s iPad, which police recovered on the scene, had its message historical past cleared to 4 days earlier than the killing, prosecutors mentioned.
Surveillance video captured the 2 suspects leaving their house within the 6100 block of North Northwest Freeway round 8 p.m. Jan. 26, with Bello Morales holding a roll of duct tape, prosecutors mentioned. Fifteen minutes later, they have been at Levin’s residence, and shortly after, Levin’s 65-year-old sister heard loud noises from his downstairs house.
When she went to verify on her brother, she bumped into Bello Morales on an inside stairwell and requested him: “Is my brother OK?”
“Sure, I’m along with your brother. I’ll have him name you,” Bello Morales responded, based on a police report.
At 8:35 p.m., she tried to name and textual content her brother and responses from his telephone got here again “brushing her off,” prosecutors mentioned. Two hours later, she went to verify on him and located each doorways to his residence and bed room have been locked.
She then broke in and located him partially clothed, his fingers sure with duct tape, his legs tied with a black electrical wire and a sock lodged in his mouth held closed by duct tape, prosecutors mentioned. She advised investigators he was “chilly to the contact,” and police mentioned his telephone and pockets have been lacking.
She later recognized the 2 males in a lineup and within the surveillance video, prosecutors mentioned.
Surveillance video later captured Bello Morales and Ubilla-Delgado stopping at a vape store and later a fuel station, the place they allegedly tried to make use of Levin’s playing cards and telephone to make purchases or withdraw cash, prosecutors mentioned. 4 Amazon orders made on Levin’s telephone after video captured the 2 leaving Levin’s residence totaled greater than $4,000; Levin’s Financial institution of America account was locked after a number of requests to entry it from his telephone.
Information from Levin’s telephone and surveillance video tracked the 2 of their automobile again to their house, prosecutors mentioned.
Bello Morales, who got here to the U.S. from Ecuador a yr in the past, and Ubilla-Delgado, who got here to the U.S. from Venezuela a couple of yr and a half in the past, are due again in courtroom Thursday.
A police supply advised the Solar-Instances the 2 have been undocumented immigrants, although their immigration standing was unrelated to the costs they face within the killing or within the earlier assault Bello Morales can be accused of.
Undocumented immigrants have drawn scrutiny lately amid President Donald Trump’s deceptive or false claims of ties between crime and immigrants. A Nationwide Institute of Justice-funded examine analyzing knowledge from the Texas Division of Public Security discovered undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. residents for violent and drug crimes.
