Five days before he is alleged to have shot his former girlfriend to death and critically wounded their 1-year-old daughter and the woman’s new boyfriend, Jaime Casillas of Joliet battered her and abducted their baby, the woman told the court.
Casillas “took my daughter from me and refused to return her,” Brenda Greenwood wrote Dec. 27 in a petition for an order of protection, which Will County Judge Robert Brumund granted the next day. Greenwood said Casillas “yanked me around from my arms” and “pinned me down and pushed me some more. … Now he’s refusing to give me my daughter back!”
Brumund ordered Casillas to immediately return the baby to Greenwood.
Authorities took the baby from Casillas when he showed up at the courthouse the next day to seek an order of protection against Greenwood, said Jorge Casillas, Jaime’s uncle.
The baby had been in Casillas’ custody at least five days a week since Greenwood was arrested on drug charges, he said.
Greenwood on Oct. 26 was charged with felony marijuana delivery, according to court documents. In his order, Brumund deemed Casillas “dangerous” and required him to stay away from Greenwood and her home in the 200 block of East Lincoln Street. But Casillas and an unidentified accomplice broke into the home early Monday morning, less than an hour after the New Year began, and shot Merced Costilla, Greenwood’s new boyfriend, before shooting Greenwood and the baby, Joliet police said.
Costilla was shot in the stomach, Greenwood in the head and the baby in the shoulder and abdomen, Assistant State’s Atty. Adam Capelli said Tuesday at a bond hearing. Will County Judge Robert Lorz ordered Casillas, 26, of the 100 block of Anderson Avenue held in lieu of $5 million bail on murder, attempted murder and aggravated battery charges.
Greenwood, 24, was declared dead in Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet a short time after the shooting. The baby, Mireya Casillas, was airlifted to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, and Costilla was kept in Silver Cross. Both were in critical condition Tuesday but were expected to live, Deputy Police Chief Patrick Kerr said.
Police continued their investigation, in part to find Casillas’ alleged accomplice, Kerr said.
Pedro Zerrmano, Casillas’ brother, said police called him Tuesday morning and asked him to come in to answer questions. Zerrmano said he refused, based on advice from his uncle.
“I know he didn’t do it,” Zerrmano said of his brother. “He’s softer than a baby puppy.”
Jorge Casillas said his nephew Jaime was at the home of another uncle at the time of the shootings. His nephew did not leave the other uncle’s house, which is nearly 2 miles from the crime scene, between 11 p.m. and 1:50 a.m., when police arrived and took him in for questioning, the uncle said.
Zerrmano said he stopped by the other uncle’s home for about 40 minutes during a period that covered the time of the shootings.
In mid-August, Jaime Casillas was released on parole from Jacksonville Correctional Center, where he was serving a 2-year term on a marijuana delivery charge filed in 2004, according to Illinois Department of Corrections records.
Casillas pleaded guilty to that charge in June 2005 and was sentenced to 120 days in jail and 30 months of probation, court records state. As a condition of that probation, he had to complete a drug rehabilitation program. But a year after he was sentenced, he tested positive for drugs, leading a judge to revoke probation and send him to prison, records show.
In a 2000 case, Casillas was convicted of robbery and sentenced to 3 years in prison, according to Corrections Department records. Also in 2000, Casillas was convicted on a Joliet citation for marijuana possession, court records state.
Casillas also was convicted of domestic battery in 2000 and 2005, prosecutors said.
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hdardick@tribune.com
