Four people charged with kidnapping and attacking a Crystal Lake teen last month and streaming the assault live on Facebook, are expected to be arraigned today at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courts Building in Chicago.
Brittany Covington, 18, and her sister Tanishia Covington, 24; Jordan Hill, 18; and Tesfaye Cooper, 18, all of Chicago, face charges of aggravated kidnapping, unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and a hate crime in the attack on the 18-year-old, who has schizophrenia and attention deficit disorder.
Cooper, a former Hoffman Estates High School student, and the Covingtons are also charged with residential burglary. Hill, who attended Aurora’s Core Academy and Hoffman Estates’ Conant High School and was described as a friend of the Crystal Lake teen, is charged with robbery and possession of a stolen motor vehicle. They have been held without bail in Cook County jail since their arrests Jan. 3. If convicted of the most serious charges, each faces up to 30 years in prison.
Prosecutors say the attack unfolded between Dec. 31, 2016, and Jan. 2. They say the defendants slapped, punched and harassed the teen; cut his scalp and made him drink toilet water; threatened to kill him and forced him to make racial statements and derogatory statements about then-President-elect Donald Trump.
All four defendants are black; the Crystal Lake teen is white.
Afterward, they bound the teen, stuffed a sock in his mouth and duct-taped it shut, prosecutors said. At one point, Hill called the victim’s mother and demanded a $300 ransom, prosecutors said.
Citing reports of online threats against the defendants and their attorneys, Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas forbade courtroom sketch artists from drawing the faces of the defendants or their attorneys.
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