3 Friends Shared Joint While 'Savagely' Beating Man: Cops

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — Three friends took hits off a joint between beating another friend’s head to a bloody pulp, prosecutors said. Their alleged victim is currently on life support at Advocate Christ Medical Center.

Jonathan Owens, 30, and Jessica Doherty, 26, both of Chicago, and Stacy L. Krisik, 33, of Evergreen Park appeared for a bond hearing Monday at the Bridgeview Courthouse. Each have been charged with aggravated battery causing great harm in an act that Cook County Judge John Mahoney called “savagely violent.”

The prosecutor said the man and his friends were playing cards at Krisik’s house in the 8700 block of South Francisco late Friday evening. The four friends were drinking and snorting cocaine. Sometime during the card game, the alleged victim took his prescribed suboxone medication. The man’s eyes grew glassy, and he began making incoherent statements.

>>> 3 Charged After Injured Man Is Discovered In Evergreen Park Home

The man allegedly took out a pocket knife and the others told him to put the knife away. When the man would not comply with their request, the prosecutor said that Owens and Doherty began slapping the man’s head. Krisik allegedly held the man’s head and punched him. The man held the knife at his side but did not threaten anyone and the card game continues. The prosecutor said the alleged victim picked up an empty beer bottle.

Owens and Doherty went back around the table and took the bottle away from the man. The prosecutor said Owens punched the man in the face and “busted his eye open.” Owens allegedly threw the man on the floor while he and Doherty stomped on his face. The man tried to bust open a window in an attempt to escape.

Krisik grabbed the man’s face and punched him, when he said that Owens and Doherty would kill him. The prosecutor said one of the three sat on the man’s legs as they continued to pummel and stomp on him, until the three began sweating. For the next several hours the three took hits off a joint as they rested between beating up the man, the prosecutor said.

Owens dragged the man to a corner of the room when he continued punching the man, whose eyes were now swollen shut, the prosecutor said. As the three continued to pummel the man, the walls became splattered with blood. The prosecutor said the beating took place over the course of approximately three hours.

The alleged victim’s girlfriend was present but did not participate in the beating, the prosecutor said. She did not want to involve the police, so she tried using the man’s phone to call for help, but could not open it because she didn’t have the pass code. When the man would not provide his pass code, the prosecutor said Owens punched him.

The girlfriend was eventually able to contact the alleged victim’s brother, who told him there had been a fight. The alleged victim began yelling for his brother not to come because the three would kill him, the prosecutor said.

Around 8:20 a.m. Saturday, Evergreen Park police were asked to conduct a well-being check at Krisik’s residence for a report of a man possibly injured inside. When officers arrived, they found the man lying motionless on the floor with his fingers twitching. Police said the sound of the man gurgling on his own blood could be heard over officers’ radios. Due to the brutality of the purported crime scene, the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force was activated to assist in the investigation.

The man was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where a section of his skull was removed to relieve brain swelling. Doctors said the man suffered a subdural hematoma, bilateral subarachnoid hemorrhage, and maxillary and nasal bone fractures. The prosecutor said that the man was declared brain-dead and is on life support as his family makes arrangements.

The public defender told the judge that Krisik and Owens are currently dating and live together in Krisik’s apartment. Krisik served a year in the Illinois Department of Corrections for possession of a controlled substance. Doherty has misdemeanor arrests for retail theft and obstruction of justice, for which she received supervision.

Owens has to prior felony convictions, including reckless discharge of a firearm for which he served one year in IDOC, the prosecutor said.

“I can’t see any way to release these defendants, no bond,” the judge said.

The three are due back in court April 22 in Bridgeview.