A Cook County judge on Saturday denied pre-trial release for two people accused of robbing and beating a 63-year-old man to death in Chicago’s Norwood Park neighborhood.
The victim was found in the basement of his family’s home along West Talcott Avenue near North Oriole Avenue, according to officials.
The individual, identified as George Levin, was beaten to death Sunday night, prosecutors revealed during a detention hearing on Saturday. Levin was found tied up, bound, and gagged with a sock in his mouth, authorities said.
Jefferson Ubilla Delgado, 29, and Geiderwuin Bello Morales, 21, were arrested on murder and robbery charges in connection with the crime.
Prosecutors said Delgado was wearing a Department of Homeland Security GPS monitoring device on his ankle at the time of the incident.
Court documents show the victim, his sister and mother had dinner before the victim excused himself to the basement where he lived around 8 p.m. About 30 minutes later, she told investigators she heard noise coming from the basement.
She saw Morales leaving her brother’s room and asked him where her brother was and if he was okay. Morales assured her that Levin was okay and that he would have him call her.
Levin’s sister told investigators she attempted to call her brother and texted him – and she received a message from his phone, brushing her off.
She later found her brother – who had died – in the basement. She told police his hands were wrapped together with duct tape, his feet were tied together with an electrical cord and a sock was stuffed in his mouth and secured with duct tape, prosecutors stated. His body was partially undressed.
The sister called 911 and performed CPR while she waited for first responders to arrive, according to court documents.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said Levin sustained multiple injuries from assault.
Investigators said the suspects were captured on surveillance video arriving and leaving the victim’s home and that they had stolen his phone and wallet.
Court documents revealed both men used the victim’s credit cards on his phone to make purchases at a vape store and attempted to withdraw money from an ATM.
Police tracked the suspects down using data and GPS signals from the victim’s phone, surveillance video footage and the GPS monitoring device that was placed on Delgado by the Department of Homeland Security.
When he was arrested, Delgado admitted to investigators he had met the victim on the Grindr dating app – and they arranged to meet in person to have sex in exchange for the victim’s cell phone as payment. He told investigators they tied Levin up, slapped and beat him because that’s what he wanted, prosecutors said.
But prosecutors said a search of the victim’s phone, iPad, and Grindr account showed messages had been deleted, and investigators found no evidence of the claims made by Delgado.During Saturday’s detention hearing, NBC Chicago learned Delgado is from Ecuador and Morales is from Venezuela. Both men had been in the country for about a year, according to the judge. Court records showed Morales has a pending misdemeanor charge of assault; he has been accused of luring two young girls.
The judge described the allegations of the case as horrifying, shocking and tragic, and denied the men pre-trial release.
Both men are due back in court on Feb. 6.
NBC Chicago reached out to the Department of Homeland Security as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement regarding Delgado’s GPS monitoring device, but we had yet to receive a response as of Saturday evening.
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