4 Charged In 2011 Murder Of Man Found In Barrington Pond
UPDATED 06/22/12 10:04 a.m.
WAUKEGAN, Ill. (CBS) -- Authorities have charged three men and a woman with the murder of a man whose body was found in a pond in Barrington nearly a year ago.
On July 6 of last year, Cook County sheriff's investigators found the body of David Campbell, 27, of Waukegan, in the Penny Road Pond in Barrington.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports
Podcast
Police say Campbell was tortured with a blow torch before he was strangled, in a case of mistaken identity, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
An investigation began right away, but it wasn't until just this past Sunday around 5 p.m. that the suspects were located. At that time Waukegan police were dispatched for a call of shots fired at Grand Avenue and Yeoman Street in that town.
Police found William Golden and Nadia Palacios in a car at the intersection. Golden admitted that he had fired shots at a car and a lawn globe ornament just to impress Palacios, police said in a news release.
Golden was immediately charged with unlawful use of a weapon, but it was Palacios they were actually interested in. While detectives from Waukegan and the Cook County Sheriff's office were questioning her, she allegedly admitted that she'd been involved in Campbell's murder.
Palacios thought Campbell was the masked man who sexually assaulted her, but police do not believe that is the case.
She was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon and reckless discharge of a firearm, police said.
Detectives also arrested Roberto Guzman, 24, of the 1000 block of Berwick Blvd. in Waukegan; Eric Castillo, 24, of the 38400 block of North Sheridan Road in Beach Park; and Jose Horta, 19, of the 300 block of Edison Court in Waukegan, police said.
On July 1 of last year, Palacios, Roberto Guzman and a friend were tied up by four masked men in Palacios' home, and one of the men raped Palacios, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Palacios and Guzman then talked to others about it, and decided that Campbell – who was an acquaintance of theirs – was the man who sexually assaulted Palacios, the newspaper reported.
Palacios and her accomplices lured Campbell to an auto body shop in Waukegan in a phony drug deal, authorities allege.
Prosecutors say Campbell stepped into an office, where Castillo knocked him to the ground, and Horta held a pistol to Campbell's head while Castillo ripped the victim's clothes off, the Sun-Times reports.
The men demanded answers about the sexual assault, but Campbell said he had nothing to do with it, prosecutors said in the Sun-Times account. But the torture continued as Castillo allegedly hit him with a claw hammer, then pulled a plastic bag over his head and zip-tied it shut, the newspaper reported.
At that point, prosecutors said, Palacios fired up a blow torch and took it to Campbell's groin, burning him, the Sun-Times reported. Castillo then strangled him with the zip tie, and with the victim now dead, the group dumped his body in the pond and abandoned his car in Northwest Indiana, the Sun-Times reported.
Campbell is being held at the Lake County Jail on a $2 million bond.
The Sun-Times reports Guzman was denied bond, and bond was set at $5 million for Castillo and $3 million for Horta. They were all arrested Wednesday.
A fifth person is also wanted on a warrant in the case, the newspaper reported.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
