Alexis Valdez / Photo from Chicago Police
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO
Homicide Watch Chicago
When Alexis Valdez’s aunt told her do-nothing nephew that she wanted him out of her Northwest Side apartment, he decided to leave her a Christmas Eve “present.”
The gift Valdez left on his aunt’s bed, Cook County prosecutors alleged in court Friday, was the severed head of her boyfriend, Silvestri Diaz.
After prosecutors outlined one of the more gruesome crimes in recent memory at the George Leighton Criminal Courthouse, Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas ordered Valdez — a slight 18-year-old with no known criminal history — held without bond.
In court, Assistant State’s Attorney Kingsley Sawyers said Valdez moved in with his aunt and Diaz about six months ago. Valdez was allowed to move into the apartment in the 2500 block of North Kildare Avenue on the condition that he go to school, work and contribute to household expenses, Sawyers said. But eventually, Valdez stopped working and he was asked to move out.
On Christmas Eve, while the aunt was attending a party, Valdez started drinking and became angry at being forced to move out. At some point, Diaz came home to the apartment and went with Valdez to a store to buy more beer.
“Before leaving to go to the store, the defendant took a hammer from the porch and hid it by the door so that he could kill the victim after they returned home,” Sawyers said.
When Valdez and Diaz returned, Valdez unleashed his fury, smashing Diaz in the head multiple times with the hammer, prosecutors alleged. Diaz fell to the floor. When Diaz was dead, Valdez dismembered the body, eventually cutting off Diaz’s head, Sawyers said.
Valdez eventually became exhausted, Sawyers said. He called 911 to report a dead body. When the 911 operator asked Valdez if he’d tried CPR, “the defendant laughed and told the 911 operator that the victim had been decapitated,” Sawyers said.
When police arrived, Valdez was covered in blood and admitted to killing Diaz, Sawyers said.
“The defendant also admitted that he was angry with his aunt and the victim, and that if his aunt had come home and seen the victim’s body, then he would have killed her as well,” Sawyers said.