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Bail was set at $7 million Friday for a 37-year-old South Elgin man charged with the fatal beating of his girlfriend’s young son in their apartment in the 1000 block of Manchester Court.
Jeffrey Johnson, a journeyman electrician laid off May 14, allegedly beat Matthew Hodges, 3 1/2, early in the week, causing internal injuries that slowly killed the boy over the course of at least a day. Matthew was found dead Tuesday morning.
Johnson, already on conditional discharge from an unrelated weapons case, allegedly told police the boy lost consciousness while taking a bath. But an autopsy showed the boy died of internal injuries and bleeding caused by blunt trauma to the abdomen.
