Criminal law

Four Charged In Horrific Torture Of White Disabled Man In Chicago

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Chicago police are finally calling the horrific crimes committed against a white disabled man in Chicago a hate crime and released the names of the alleged culprits.  They are Jordan Hill, 18, Tesfaye Cooper, 18, Brittany Covington, 18, and Tanishia Covington, 24 and faced hate crime and aggravated battery charges after torturing the man while shouting things like “F–k white people” and “F–k Trump.”  In addition to cutting and beating the 18-year-old mentally disabled man, the suspects forced him to drink from a toilet.  They are looking at sentences that could reach 50 years in jail if convicted.

As discussed yesterday, the initial response to the Facebook videotape of the torturing of the man was bizarre.  When pressed about the absence of any word on a charge of a hate crime, Area North Detectives Commander Kevin Duffin said the department was considering whether race was a motivation and added “They’re young adults. And they make stupid decisions. That certainly will be part of whether or not we seek a hate crime to determine whether this is sincere or just stupid ranting and raving.”

Even more chilling, the victim was a classmate of one of the suspects and was held for over 24 hours.

Hill is charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, robbery, residential burglary.

Cooper is charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and residential burglary.

Brittany Covington was charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and residential burglary.

Tanishia Covington was charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Their trial will be undermined not only by their own videotape but their expressions of fun and mirth, including one exclaiming how the torture is “hilarious” and others holding him up for the camera as the others laugh at his bloody, whimpering image:

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The victim is a special needs student and knew Jordan Hill from school in Aurora, Illinois.  His parents dropped him off at a McDonald’s in Streamwood on Saturday because he wanted to spend the night with Hill. They reportedly him missing on Monday when they could not get in touch with him.  Police say that Hill picked the victim up in a stolen van. The victim was unaware that the van was stolen.  For two days, the victim hanged around with Hill and slept in the van at night.  On Tuesday, things turned nightmarish when they visited the two Covington sisters.  The sisters allegedly tied up the victim and the group tortured him for six hours, including at least one half an hour posted on Facebook.  You can hear them yelling “F–k white people” and “f–k Trump.”  The victim was screaming in pain and eventually neighbors called police.

As neighbors complained about the noise, the victim ran from the apartment and was found by a police officer wearing only a tank top and shorts and “bloodied and bruised.”

The plethora of charges and videotapes will likely prompt defense counsel to seek plea bargains.  If the videotape shows one of the four as mainly filming, there could be a deal reached to testify against the others if prosecutors want to seek maximum sentencing.  There could be a claim of drug use or other mitigating circumstances but this videotape will undermine such defense arguments.  Jurors do not generally take to such defenses when they can see four people enjoying the torture of a harmless, disabled man — and a friend of one of the abusers.  They are, in other words, without a good option for the defense since this tape will get into evidence.

62 thoughts on “Four Charged In Horrific Torture Of White Disabled Man In Chicago”

  1. If there are any black people who are watching, I don’t blame a race for this.

  3. Looking at the photos, it’s really hard to decide which is the most punchable.

  4. Well, I am glad they found the right charges. I just hope they don’t plea bargain.

  5. Oh my God, I am just sick at heart for the victim.

    My niece who passed away was special needs. The thought of someone like her being kidnapped and tortured for days…I just can’t even think about it without crying. This young man may have already had self esteem issues. What has this done to him? How does he feel about himself now? Is he going to be afraid of people now? And he wasn’t racist at all, like his kidnappers were. He thought Jordan was his friend.

    Why aren’t kids raised now to be protective and kind to special needs people?

    I see 4 people who appear healthy, who are going to spend time in a cage. They are going to be told when to wake up, when to go to sleep, when and what to eat, where to walk, and when to stay in their cage. Are they going to feel like big men and women when they are treated like a zoo animal? Did they make some sacrifice for the greater good in throwing their life and opportunities away?

    My niece would have given anything just to be normal. She told me that many times. It always makes me so frustrated when healthy people with no special needs just throw their opportunities away. There are people with special needs or terminal illnesses who would give anything to be in their shoes. And look what they did with their blessings. This needs to be investigated, but the 4 appear to be racist and bigoted to me, as well as foolish and lacking in empathy.

    Is this how they were raised? Was hatred in the home?

    Can the community please do something special to show love and support for the victim?

    1. It is especially painful to think the victim trusted these people and most likely drew confidence from what hes saw as a supporting relationship. You have to wonder if after the physical wounds heal, if the mental ones will–or will they drag him into a downward spiral for the rest of his days. It’s pretty heartbreaking stuff.

    2. Thank you. It dose not matter what color all of the people in this case are. What matters is that no one black ,white or pin strip should ever get away with what these people did to that young man. What kind of sick ,twisted people can do such a thing? It is truly disgusting I also wonder what kind of parents brought them up and shouldn’t they be held responsible as well?

  7. The rancid attacks on Obama and the left can be arguably placed in the causes for evil category. There is political, economic, legal, etc differences of opinion and then there is simple hatred. This hatred is the primary ingredient in evil. That’s how DDT made it to the top. That’s illustrated frequently on this blog.

        1. No, because of people like, your response prove what I’ve submitted. Your the most angry person on the blog who continues your tirade against President Trump. Suck it up your whacked out visions are fadeing.

        3. You actually believe Obama did a good job for this country? Or his party? In my opinion, that makes you mindless and blind. Here’s Obama’s legacy: Democrats got completely screwed and Republicans are in full control at all levels of government.

          1. Bob

            Obama did a better than yeoman’s job during his eight years. The Republican party did a far superior tactical job of holding the country hostage, obstructing progress, and limiting recovery. The Republican party did a yeoman’s job of blaming it all on Obama. The tactics of Nixon, used in extending the Vietnam war and obstructing peace talks got him elected as well. These are nothing compared to the tactics of DDT the results of which we will have to wait for. One thing is historically factual, the Republican party has run on the illusions less than half of all Americans depend upon. During and after the last two Republican con games the US has been much worse off than after the last two Democrat Presidents. Statistics prove this out.

            DDT ran on lies, illusions, and blame. Many dictators have done that. Many Republicans have done that. It only works, unfortunately, when there are enough mindless and angry people to join in the blame, believing the lies, and living an illusion. As for the Democrat party getting screwed, tactically perhaps but Obama was welcomed to stump for Clinton and the Democrats. I don’t believe Bush was welcomed. In fact it is a fact that he was encouraged to stay out of the picture. You cannot rewrite history.

            2. Obama ran on hope and change – Liberals envisioned a new “Camelot” but that illusion quickly dissipated when he chose to surround himself with vile corporatists. Progressives woke up quickly, but the Liberal cult remained true supporters no matter what he did. That’s why we fought against HRC – we did not want Obama 2.0.

              As far as Bush not stumping for Trump – he wasn’t welcome – would have been a death knell to be associated with W.

              1. “Progressives woke up quickly, but the Liberal cult remained true supporters no matter what he did.”

                Autumn,
                Really? So in 2012 Obama was reelected by Liberals and not Progressives?

    2. “There is political, economic, legal, etc differences of opinion and then there is simple hatred.”

      No, that is a false comparison. There are differences of opinion and then there are differences of action. I don’t hate you for instance because I believe in the principles laid out in our founding documents and you don’t. The validity of our rule of law has been under attack since its inception and it’s the actions of those attacking it that gives rise to all manners of defending our governing institutions.

      I took an oath to support and defend our nation “against all enemies, foreign and domestic”. If you take an opinion contrary to the principles of equal justice for all, liberty for all, the security of unalienable rights, constitutionally-limited government and federalism, then you should expect to receive a full-throated denunciation of that opinion. When that opinion turns into action that threatens those founding principles, then you should expect denunciation to give way to all means necessary to defend that action. You call that “simple hatred”? I call it reasoned self-defense.

    3. Do rancid attacks on Obama justify rancid attacks on Trump and those who support him? Isn’t that just eye for an eye mentality all over again? You actually believe there is no hate and evil coming from the left? From Black Lives Matter? Evil and hate begets more evil and hate. Where’s the high road of tolerance and civility? Your arguments are pathetic.

        1. You mean the one from Canada who believes a fascist reign of terror is imminent under Donald Trump?

  8. Correction, not 30 years but 50, the full 50 years away from society, no danger to society. Evil this pure and simple should be responded to with a pure and simple 50 years tucked away.

  9. Thank goodness they are charged properly. Even though the crime of torturing someone that is defenseless should on its own put these evil doers away, I hope the added charge of “hate crime” will insure their conviction. I can tell you that for anyone out there that has a family member with special needs, when they looked into the eyes of that victim they saw their own special needs child and it broke our hearts.

    1. i myself live in chicago and i have a special needs son, i hope
      they get everything they get whats comming 2 them.and then some stick it to em

  10. “enjoying torture”

    Gee, I wonder where they might have gotten that idea. Perhaps from people who were paid and equipped and ordered to torture others and then absolved of all criminal wrongdoing.

    1. Correct. They’ve watched the rise of ISIS, BLM. They’ve seen how the Left and this administration have been trying to de-legitimatize Trump’s Presidency before it gets started. Why wouldn’t they think at least half the country would be supportive of them?

    2. Enjoying torture must be in. 8 years and Gitmo is still going strong. Seems to me someone had closing that facility as a top campaign point. Hmmmmmmmm.

      Thought it was interesting that McChrystal (I believe) said he could do better interrogation with a six-pack and pack of cigarettes. Not me, tougher than that. It’s got to be 2 chili dogs with finely ground onions and brown mustard, or you’re not getting anything out of me.

      Torture seems to be more for the torturers than the information. Guess that’s why our petty and vindictive Pres-Dictator found he was OK with it.

    3. These narcissistic psychopaths are totally unaware of current events outside their own sick bubble. Maybe they got the idea from one of the increasingly vile movies/series, but no excuse. Bad seeds cannot be fixed.

  11. I think this brings up a good point. What do we do with the one out of a hundred people that are psychopaths? We can chuck in the now believed incurable pedophiles also. That is a large number of people to deal with. There is probably a test at this point. Maybe a penal island?

    1. Yes, a penal island – like “Papillon” – remove them from society – drop food and medicine and let them fend for themselves.

      1. I was thinking of an “Escape From….” scenario of a moored decommissioned aircraft carrier out by an atoll. Can’t sink an island when things get out of control.

  12. And people still wonder why the “Elites” want to cull 90% of the population… this might give them a clue… the gene pool is getting quite thin…

  14. Hogwash that Jordan Hill did not know the van was stolen. These four are typical of the feral savages being raised by the single black mothers of the country, and I bet the four of these will fit right into that stereotype. My GUESS is that none of them have a father in the household, but that is just a guess, and we will see.

    I think 50 years is too much for them to serve, but 10 years is about right.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

    1. As horrific is this is….you don’t want your car to break down near a ‘white’ or ‘Hispanic’ run down trailer park either. Things went down hill real fast
      When we took The Creator….God, out of the schools in the late 60’s.

  15. Darren, Illinois adult sentencing guidelines do allow juvenile court convictions to be considered during sentencing.

    1. Good. I’m glad any juvenile convictions will be considered. This case makes me so mad.

    1. Didn’t know they had to request, I thought if the federal hate crime was set forth it was automatic?
      Is there a possiblity of 2 Trials, state and federal?

  17. Does anyone having knowledge of Illinois criminal procedure know if juvenile court convictions for violent offenses can be unsealed and used in sentencing? I suspect given the severity of these presently alleged crimes that at least the main actors might have criminal records as juveniles.

    1. Good point, Darren. These 4 seem to be a real danger to society, if they would torture one of the most harmless, helpless people in it. I hope any past criminal behavior, if present, will be used in sentencing.

  18. Obama chimed in and took a side on other high profile cases over the years before the facts were clear because it served his agenda. Bet your bottom dollar we won’t hear one word about this hate crime from the president. Doesn’t fit with the narrative he will be spinning in his farewell tour next week. He’s gonna be too busy partying at the White House again this weekend to be bothered with it.

    1. Obama and Kerry are too busy right now by brokering a deal in Paris next week. If they can’t fan the flames of World War 3 with Russia, might as well destroy Israel.

    3. Correct post, as the “Victim was White”…….Obama ONLY chimes in and disparages IF a white person would have done this. He AND Holder pushed for this “arrogant Racist Black Empowerment, and they stated that IF a black commits a crime against whites it would NOT be prosecuted, ONLY if the victim is black would they press charges on whites.” Now, See how this has worked out? Blacks became MORE violent-EVEN against their own blacks, and the Knockout Game as they called it, was A-OK with Obama, Holder, BLM, and ALL THE LIBERAL MEDIA that did NOT even cover it…….Shame on this action by Obama, who OWNS IT, as he told Black rioters in Ferguson: “STAY THE COURSE”

  19. I think they are a bit out of control. Corporal punishment is in order. Beat each of them with billy clubs and make it a hospital affair. Shave their heads. Lock em up in all black jails for about two years each. Probation then would include community service for two more years.

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