Alexander Robins | Chicago Police
By JORDAN OWEN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
Three more people have been charged—in addition to a 17-year-old boy—with beating Cary “Mike” Silverstein to death and throwing his body in a Dumpster in the West Ridge neighborhood on the North Side in December.
Shawndre Lehmann, 17, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in connection with the death of the 64-year-old Silverstein, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. Lehmann was 16 at the time of the murder.
Alexander Robinson, 28; and another boy are also charged with first-degree murder, Chicago Police announced Wednesday evening. Shatara Lehmann, 25, was charged with concealment of a homicidal death.
Shatara Lehmann is the brother of Shawndre Lehmann and Robinson’s girlfriend, prosecutors said.
Silverstein hosted a birthday party at his apartment in the 6500 block of North Hoyne about 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10, 2015, prosecutors said at Shawndre Lehmann’s bond hearing Wednesday.
Shatara Lehmann | Chicago Police
The victim got into an argument after saying derogatory things to another person’s girlfriend, prosecutors said. That person punched Silverstein in the face, then left the apartment to cool off.
He later returned, and soon after, Shawndre Lehmann and another person arrived at the party, prosecutors said. Lehman and the two others began arguing with Silverstein, then punched, kicked and struck him multiple times with a metal frying pan.
They eventually beat him to death, then made a plan to his dispose of his body, prosecutors said.
Shatara Lehmann cleaned up Silverstein’s blood with water and bleach, and washed the frying pan, prosecutors said. Shawndre Lehmann and the two others took off Silverstein’s clothes, tried to wash his body in the bathroom, then placed his body in two large garbage bags which they taped together.
Shawndre Lehmann then took the body and put it in a nearby Dumpster, while the other two acted as lookouts, prosecutors said.
As of Wednesday, Silverstein’s body has not been recovered, prosecutors said.
Flood Waste Company, which handles trash collection in the neighborhood, said garbage from bins in the area is initially taken to a transfer station in Maywood. From there, it would have been taken to a landfill in either Rochelle or Rockford. Both landfills handle millions of pounds of garbage every day.
Silverstein’s family filed a missing person report on Dec. 16. He had previously talked to his sister almost daily, prosecutors said. She last spoke to him the day of the murder.
Detectives examined Silverstein’s apartment for blood, and traces were found in the kitchen and bathroom, prosecutors said. Several people had been living with Silverstein prior to his disappearance, and one of them implicated Shawndre Lehmann and the three others in his murder.
Shawndre Lehmann, of the 500 block of North Lockwood, was arrested Monday and confessed to the murder and to dumping the body, prosecutors said. Judge Donald Panarese ordered him held on a $1 million bond Wednesday.
Robinson, of the 400 block of North Drake, also confessed and was ordered held on a $1 million bond, prosecutors said. Shatara Lehmann, of the 3000 block of North Gresham, was ordered held on a $300,000 bond, but may be eligible for electronic monitoring, according to prosecutors, who said she too confessed.
Court information on the other boy, who is charged as a juvenile, was not immediately available.
Robinson has a daughter, and Shatara Lehmann has three children, ages 5, 2 and 1, an assistant public defender said at their bond hearing Thursday. Her three children are now in DCFS custody.