A 46-year-old man fatally beat a homeless man with an aluminum bat and a brick last week as an accomplice acted as a lookout, prosecutors said Sunday.
Thomas Ocasio is charged with first degree murder in the beating of Joaquin Clara, 51, to death as he slept in a yard in the 5900 block of West Fullerton Avenue about 7:45 p.m. Wednesday.
Ocasio was ordered held without bail by Cook County Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. during a bond hearing Sunday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
“You are a danger to everyone,” Bourgeois said in court.
Rogelio Arroyo, 31, of the 2100 block of North Meade Avenue, is also charged with first-degree murder and acted as Ocasio’s lookout, according to authorities. He was ordered held in lieu of $1 million bail during a Saturday court appearance.
Surveillance cameras captured two men walking on Fullerton, with Arroyo carrying the baseball bat and the second man carrying “what appeared to be bricks or rocks,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Julia B. Ramirez. Six minutes later, video captured the same men leaving the area.
More than an hour passed before Clara was discovered. He was taken to Community First Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office determined following an autopsy that Clara died of blunt force trauma and his death was a homicide. Court records and Arroyo’s arrest report also list the victim’s name as Joaquin Clara Aragon.
Arroyo, who had no previous criminal background, was arrested the evening of the beating when he returned to the scene and was recognized by witnesses as police conducted their investigation, Ramirez said. Police found a blood-stained bat and bricks at the scene and took them into evidence, authorities said.
Witnesses identified Ocasio, of the 5400 block of South Kilbourn Avenue, as the person they saw in the area at the time of the incident carrying bricks.
During a statement recorded on video, Arroyo told police that he acted as lookout while Ocasio beat the victim.
Ocasio is a car-wash supervisor, a public defender said in court.
Prosecutors released no information on what led to the fatal beating or what the motive behind it might have been.
