No bond for 4 accused in Facebook live torture case
CHICAGO (AP) - A Cook County judge on Friday ordered four African-American defendants accused of holding a white schizophrenic man captive and torturing him for hours held without bond, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
Jordan Hill, 18, of Carpentersville, and Tesfaye Cooper, 18, Brittany Covington, 18, and Tanishia Covington, 24, all of Chicago, appeared in bond court Friday.
The four appeared before Cook County Associate Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil on Thursday afternoon, when she asked them "Where was your sense of decency?"
They face charges of aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Hill is also charged with robbery, residential burglary and possession of a stolen motor vehicle. In addition, Cooper and Brittany Covington are charged with residential burglary.
The hate crime charges are based on the victim’s race and mental disability, prosecutors said.
They allegedly tortured the 18-year-old victim for about six hours in an apartment where the Covington sisters live on the West Side, police said. The defendants are accused of putting videos of the torture on Facebook. They’re seen forcing the victim to drink toilet water, cutting the victim with a knife, and forcing him to say “I love black people,” authorities say. Someone in the apartment also said, “F— Trump” and “F— white people.”
Extra security at the hearing included about a dozen sheriff's deputies.