Joliet Police Having Success Solving 2021 Homicides

JOLIET, IL —After investigating 15 homicides last year and 19 homicides in 2019, the Joliet Police Department remains on pace to have one of the city's lowest number of slayings in many years — the current total stands at five.

In a bizarre set of events, Joliet police detectives learned last week that a young man arrested following a standoff in the College Park subdivision had fatally stabbed his uncle nearly a month earlier and then drove the body to the woods at the Woodlawn Cemetery, according to prosecutors. The case against Anthony "Tony" Harames marked the fourth time Joliet police detectives have made a quick arrest in connection with a newly discovered homicide during this past year.

Of the five city homicides so far in 2021, only one remains unsolved, the July 17 killing of 40-year-old Aaron E. Harris in the parking lot of the Cantigny Post 367 VFW Hall property.

Making arrests in four of five homicides gives the Joliet Police Department detective unit an 80 percent clearance rate. In one of the homicides, a senior citizen who told detectives he fired the fatal bullet into his girlfriend's body remains incarcerated on several felony charges, but not murder. The charging decision was made by the Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow.

On Wednesday, Joliet Patch reached out to the Joliet Police Department's administration for comment regarding the detective's unit performance in 2021, with arrests made in 80 percent of the homicides.

"We are extremely proud of the detectives and officers who work tirelessly to identify and arrest those responsible for such heinous crimes in the hopes of providing justice to family and friends of the deceased," Joliet police spokesman Dwayne English wrote Patch.

Here's a recap of the homicides investigated by the Joliet Police Department during the first eleven-and-a-half months of the year:

NOV. 17

Homicide victim: Timothy Bokholdt, 53.

Joliet police were involved with a standoff for six hours on Dec. 8 with Bokholdt's nephew Anthony "Tony" Harames, 31, inside the house owned by Bokholdt in the 900 block of Natoma Court. Afterward, Harames told Joliet police that he had killed his uncle, who had been missing for more than a month, and dumped the body at the Woodlawn Cemetery. Court documents indicate the body was found on Dec. 9 in the woods. The victim had been stabbed to death. Joliet police say they found evidence of a struggle inside Bokholdt's house on Natoma Court and they recovered the knife used in the killing. Bail for Harames is $5 million.

JULY 17

Homicide victim Aaron E. Harris, 40.

During the past five months, the Joliet Police Department has been unable to solve the Saturday night killing of Aaron Harris. He was shot numerous times while he was in the parking lot of the Cantigny Post 367 VFW Hall property on Horseshoe Drive. The shooting victim was pronounced dead at St. Joe's hospital at 10:08 p.m. Harris was shot at 9:40 p.m.

There was a social event taking place at the VFW that Saturday night, according to police.

MAY 22

Homicide victim Diego Guadalupe Arriaga, 17.

Two days after the death of 17-year-old Diego Guadalupe Arriage, prosecutors charged 17-year-old Cristian Ortiz-Arias as an adult with first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and one count of unlawful possession of a gun in the homicide of 17-year-old Diego Guadalupe Arriaga. Joliet police found Diego's body shortly before 5 a.m. in the back parking lot for the Blue Kangaroo. One resident took to the Joliet Police Department Facebook page over the weekend saying he heard six gunshots right around midnight.

Now 18 years old, Ortiz-Arias was transferred to the Will County Jail on Sept. 26. His bail remains $3 million. The murder defendant's family retained the services of Joliet criminal defense attorney Chuck Bretz as counsel for the teenager. "The family is adamant that he is not culpable for this death, so we intend to mount a vigorous defense," Bretz told Joliet Patch last summer.

APRIL 4

Homicide victim Jwaun Latrell Jones, 18.

Abraham Bibian, 20, and a 26-year-old Joliet woman, Paola Diaz, are both charged with first-degree murder and Bibian is also charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

According to Will County prosecutors, Jones was fatally shot in the head as he sat inside a vehicle driving westbound on Western Avenue at North Bluff Street. Bibian and Diaz were both arrested by Joliet Police Department detectives within 48 hours.

After spending six months and one week in county detention, Bibian was set free on Oct. 13, jail records show. His mother came up with a $100,000 deposit to secure the release of her son, who lives with her in the 1200 block of Joliet's Edge Hill Avenue. Will County prosecutors revealed in May that Bibian made a confession implicating himself in the April 4 deadly shooting of Jones, who was 18.

As for Diaz, she remains in the Will County Jail, where she's been since April 6. Her bail has been reduced by a Will County judge from $1 million to $500,000.

MARCH 31

Homicide victim Sonja Underwood, 56.

The fatal shooting of 56-year-old Sonja Underwood on the morning of March 31 marked the city of Joliet's first homicide since late October 2020.

Several hours later, 69-year-old Ben Rockett was taken into custody after his live-in girlfriend's death. However, Will County State's Attorney Jim Glasgow and his staff have opted not to charge Rockett in connection with the deadly shooting of Underwood.

Rockett was previously convicted of second-degree murder in 1991.

"He states that at one point they were in the bedroom watching movies in the bed," a Joliet detective wrote. Then, an argument erupted "because Sonja was accusing Ben of staring at Sonja's female friend ... while she was at the residence ... He states that the argument then became physical with Sonja grabbing Ben's cane and started to strike him about the body."

Rockett had used the walking cane for about three weeks after suffering a stroke in early March.
Rockett told detectives the next thing he did in the bedroom was retrieve a black .38 revolver handgun from their bed, according to police. "Ben advised that he fired one shot at Sonja and (struck) her in what he believes to be the head," Joliet detective Shawn Filipiak wrote.

Glasgow has charged Rockett with one felony count of being an armed habitual criminal and two felony counts of being a convicted felon in possession of a gun. Rockett has remained in the Will County Jail since April 1. His bail remains at $1 million.