摧残MM是芝加哥光荣传统！大湖后浪推前浪：$1M Bond For Woman Charged In Bat Attack

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A Cook County judge has set bond at $1 million for a woman charged in the baseball bat beating and robbery of two women in the Bucktown neighborhood last week.

Sitting in Central Bond Court (Br. 1), Judge Joseph D. Panarese set the bond for Marcy Cruz, 25, on Thursday, one day after bond was denied for her alleged accomplice, Heriberto Viramontes, 30.

Viramontes and Cruz are charged with two counts each of armed robbery and aggravated battery, according to police.

Police say Viramontes attacked Stacy Starl Jurich, 24, and Natasha McShane, 23, as they were walking in the 1800 block of North Damen Avenue around 3:30 a.m. on April 23.

Reading from proffered allegations, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Erin Antoinetti said Viramontes and Cruz met up at a bar and had drinks, then left together in Cruz's van, with Viramontes behind the wheel.

Viramontes drove toward Bucktown, intending to rob someone because he needed quick money and drugs, Antoinetti said. As they passed a bar on Milwaukee Avenue, Cruz allegedly remarked, "Look at all those drunk a**holes coming out of the bar."

They parked the van and Viramontes got out, and Cruz stayed in the van and smoked a blunt while Viramontes found his victims, Antoinetti said.

The victims were walking from a Wicker Park bar to Jurich's Bucktown home, and were passing under the old Bloomingdale Line railroad viaduct. Police say Viramotes bludgeoned them with a baseball bat and took both their purses.

Viramontes hopped back into the van, and gave Cruz her pick of what to take from the women's purses, Antoinetti said. She took some perfume and makeup from the purses, both of which had broken straps that suggested they had been ripped from the victims' shoulders, Antoinetti said.

After leaving the scene, Viramontes and Cruz headed to a gas station at Western Avenue and Augusta Boulevard, where they were caught on surveillance video trying to use the victims' stolen credit and debit cards.

Viramontes and Cruz attempted to buy a carton of cigarettes from the gas station, but the attendant at the BP Amoco station would not allow the purchase when they presented one of the victims' IDs and Cruz pretended to be one of the women they had robbed.

Prosecutors said after that, Viramontes offered to buy gas for customers using the girls' stolen credit cards, if the customers would pay him back in cash. Viramontes is seen on surveillance video pumping gas for someone.

After tracking down the use of the stolen credits cards to the gas station, detectives also found a college notebook and one of the girl's wallets in the dumpster.

Cruz also took one of the victims' cell phones, but smashed to pieces and threw it away after finding out police were on her trail, Antoinetti said.

Cruz has two misdemeanor charges from 2002 and 2005 that were both dropped. Viramontes has been arrested and charged with various crimes 28 times from 1996 to 2008. He has been convicted of three felonies: in 1998, he was sentenced to four years in prison for a stolen car; in 1999, he was sentenced to four years in prison for burglary; and in 2001, he was sentenced to 90 months for possession of stolen items.

Viramontes and Cruz were taken into custody at separate locations on Monday.

Meanwhile, Jurich suffered a skull fracture and has required 15 staples to the back and right side of her head. She will require extensive rehabilitation for speech, sight and mobility, Antoinetti said.

McShane remains in critical condition on a ventilator in a drug-induced coma. She has suffered extensive brain damage, and it is unclear whether she will ever walk or speak again, Antoinetti said.

"(Cruz) is as culpable and as guilty from every whack of the bat by Viramontes," Antoinetti said.

A defense attorney argued that when Viramontes left the van, Cruz didn't know what he was going to do. But Antoinetti rebutted that Cruz did know what Viramontes was planning, and that her remark about the "drunk a**holes" coming out of the bar indicated that she was suggesting them as targets.

Outside court, Viramontes' sister, Marilou Viramontes, said she didn't believe her brother had committed the crime.

"I don't think he's capable of hitting a girl like that with a baseball bat," she said. "He's never been like that. He loves kids; he loves people."

She added, "Even if this was done by him, or anybody else, there's got to be some more to this story."
McShane is an exchange student from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, attending the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is also a part-time waitress at Butch McGuire's, which has been taking up a collection for her family. The bar has been accepting donations to allow her whole family to fly to Chicago to be with her as she recovers. So far, they've raised more than $3,000.

Jurich worked for a Morgan Stanley Smith Barney brokerage office in the west suburbs after graduating from Oak Forest High School and North Central College in Naperville.

Cruz is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on May 3 in Northwest Felony Court (Br. 50.)

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