Inmate beaten to death with soap-filled sock half hour after he was put in cell with rival gang member: prosecutors
An inmate beaten to death last weekend at Cook County Jail suffered injuries so severe, they were similar to those of a person who had been involved in a car crash, Cook County prosecutors said in court Thursday.
Pedro Ruiz, 19, was found by correctional officers unresponsive in his cell early Feb. 1 in a maximum security division of Cook County
Jail, according to the Cook County sheriff ’s office.
Christian Gonzalez, 24, faces a charge of first-degree murder in Ruiz’s death and is accused of beating the younger man with a sock filled with bars of soap and dragging Ruiz about the cell by his hair, prosecutors said.
Judge Arthur Wesley Willis noted in his decision to deny Gonzalez bail that the beating had taken place almost immediately after Ruiz was transferred into the cell.
“This individual, you sir,” Willis said directing his comments to Gonzalez directly, “poses a real and present danger . ... No bail.”
Gonzalez, a member of the Satan Disciples street gang, beat Ruiz to death because he was a member of a rival street gang, the Latin Saints, prosecutors said.
Gonzalez was already being held without bail on charges that include attempted murder in connection with a gang-related shooting where a member of the Latin Saints was the victim, prosecutors said. In that shooting in June 2017, Gonzalez allegedly fired at least 11 rounds from an assault-style rifle at a father and his 3-year-old son, striking the father in the leg and hip and causing the man’s son to suffer a graze wound to the leg, prosecutors said.
In November, while being held on that charge, Gonzalez was accused of participating in the stabbing and beating of another detainee at the jail, also with a “soap sock,” prosecutors said. After the detainee was left lying in a pool of his own blood, Gonzalez walked over and dropped a joker playing card on him, prosecutors said. He was hit with another count of attempted murder after that incident.
Murder after midnight
In the latest case, prosecutors said Ruiz, who was being held without bail on an attempted murder charge, was brought to the cell about 12:30 a.m. Feb. 1.
A half hour later, surveillance video from the jail showed a light in the cell turn on and for 10 minutes, Gonzalez can be seen through a window raising and bringing down his arm as if he is beating someone on the floor, prosecutors said.
At 1:30 a.m., a correctional officer performing a security check came by the cell and spoke to Gonzalez, who told the officer “something was wrong with his cellmate,” prosecutors said. The officer called a supervisor, but the supervisor and others didn’t arrive at the cell for another 20 minutes. Gonzalez was placed in handcuffs and admitted to beating Ruiz to death without being questioned, prosecutors said.