A Chicago man got two years in prison Monday after admitting he confined his ex-girlfriend after he chased her across the state line into Indiana.
Octavio Perez-Beauchamp, 32, opted to plead guilty to criminal confinement, a Level 5 felony, before his trial’s first day started in March 2025. Jurors were dismissed.
Around 4:02 p.m. on Sept. 28, 2022, Hammond Police responded to a report of a “male battering a female” near 136th Street and Sheffield Avenue, according to the probable cause affidavit.
The woman, then 43, told police that she arrived at her home in Chicago when she saw her ex-boyfriend driving in front of her house. She drove past the house in an attempt to avoid him, but he spotted her and started chasing her in his vehicle, the affidavit states.
The woman told police that she drove east into Indiana and had to slam on her brakes to avoid a crash with him near Sheffield Avenue and the state line, court records state.
Once she stopped, Perez-Beauchamp got out and started moving aggressively toward her car.
He took her cellphone, started looking through it and the woman tried to exit, but he got out of the car as well and grabbed her, forcing her back in the vehicle, the affidavit states.
According to the original court documents, Perez-Beauchamp grabbed the woman by the neck so hard that she was unable to breathe and began to pass out. She was able to grab her phone as he choked her and tried to call 911 but Perez-Beauchamp took her phone and threw it on the ground, court records state.
The woman told police that they broke up six months earlier, but he continued to go to her house and contact her against her wishes, the affidavit states. She had filed a police report in Illinois on Sept. 22, 2022 about Perez-Beauchamp breaking down the front door of her house, and she said he battered her in the past and threatened to kill her.
He is expected to have to repay juror costs.
Post-Tribune archives contributed.
