A third person sought in the killing and dismemberment of a man at a Southwest Side home has been arrested in New Jersey, police said.
Milton Miranda was booked into the Morris County, New Jersey, jail on Saturday, according to Morris County Jail officials. Miranda is wanted in Chicago on a murder warrant, according to Chicago Police.
The man is accused of attacking Jose Reyes with a pipe and an knife, then decapitating him, after Reyes was lured to the home by the suspect's girlfriend, Daisy Gutierrez, according to authorities.
Miranda, whose age and home address were not immediately available, originally was taken into custody in Morris County, New Jersey, on an unrelated charge, Police spokesman Adam Collins said in an email. Miranda is being held on an arrest warrant obtained by Chicago Police and the Cook County State's Attorney's office.
A booking photograph for Miranda was not immediately available.
Jealousy was the apparent motive, authorities said. Reyes was the brother of Gutierrez's ex-boyfriend and had shown an interest in dating her, authorities said.
After Reyes was killed, Gutierrez called her father and told him she had "fixed the problem," authorities say.
Then Gutierrez's new boyfriend dismembered the body, and her father spent three hours digging a hole in the family's backyard before placing the victim's body parts in plastic bags and burying them, prosecutors said.
Reyes' remains were buried there for nearly five months until police obtained a search warrant and dug up the yard Friday.
At a Sunday bond court hearing, Cook County Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil ordered Gutierrez, 19, held in lieu of $2 million bail on a charge of first-degree murder. Bail was set at $500,000 for her father, Salvador Gutierrez, 56, who is charged with concealing a homicide.
The plot unfolded May 21, when Gutierrez and her boyfriend decided to lure Reyes to her home in the 8300 block of South Scottsdale Avenue, Assistant State's Attorney Heather Kent said. Gutierrez has two children -- a 2-year-old and a 1-year-old -- with Reyes' brother, relatives and prosecutors said.
As part of the plan, Gutierrez told her family to leave the home, said prosecutors, who contend that she invited Reyes over while her boyfriend prepared to attack him.
Reyes had "expressed his own interest" in Gutierrez and had called her in the past, Kent said.
When Reyes arrived, Gutierrez led him to her bedroom, where she began to undress, authorities said she later told them. Then Gutierrez's boyfriend kicked in the door and attacked Reyes, slitting his throat and later decapitating him, Kent said.
Afterward, Gutierrez called her father, who returned home and watched the boyfriend dismember the body, Kent said. Salvador Gutierrez, who works as a busboy in a local restaurant, dug a hole in the backyard and buried the remains, authorities contend.
The next day, Daisy Gutierrez and her boyfriend left town, prosecutors said.
Soon after, Reyes' family started peppering his Humboldt Park neighborhood with fliers, looking for information on the Honduran native's disappearance.
Reyes, whose age was listed by authorities as 28, though his family said he was 30, moved to Chicago five years ago in hopes of improving his life, according to his family, who identified him as Jose Reyes Ramos.
The oldest of four children, Reyes worked in construction and sent most of his money back home to Tegucigalpa, where he has family, his brother Jorge Moncada Ramos said. Reyes had planned to return to Honduras in December to help take care of his sister, who has been sick for the past eight months.
"He was the nicest guy you could ever meet," said David Martinez, 31, a neighbor and friend. "He didn't deserve what happened to him. The cruelty ... that's bad, that's gruesome. Who does that?"
In bond court, Daisy Gutierrez's public defender requested that she be held in the jail hospital because she is three months pregnant.
In addition to two children with Moncada Ramos, Daisy Gutierrez has a 3-year-old child, her lawyer said. Moncada Ramos said the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has custody of his two children, but the agency declined comment.
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McClatchy-Tribune News Service
