Belmont Cragin man charged with stabbing romantic rival to death

A 20-year-old Belmont Cragin man was ordered held on $900,000 bail Wednesday for allegedly stabbing a romantic rival to death.

Kirino Fabian, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of a friend’s red Honda, had opened car door to let his on-and-off girlfriend inside early Tuesday when Alexis Julian Gonzalez started attacking him with a knife, Cook County prosecutors said.

Fabian, 19, fell out of the car at Dickens and Lavergne and was lying on the ground as Gonzalez continued to stab him, Assistant State’s Attorney Guy Lisuzzo said.

Fabian’s 20-year-old brother was stabbed in an arm as he jumped out of the Honda to rescue his sibling, Lisuzzo said.

Fabian was taken to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead. He suffered stab wounds to his face head, arms and back, Lisuzzo said.

Fabian and Gonzalez had been longtime friends, but Gonzalez had recently started dating the young woman, authorities said.

Fabian, his brother and two friends had been driving around when Fabian got a call at 2:30 a.m. that his on-and-off girlfriend was at Gonzalez’ house in the 2100 block of North Lavergne, Lisuzzo said.

Fabian asked his friend to drive him to Gonzalez’ house. Once there, Fabian yelled for the young woman to come out, Lisuzzo said. She didn’t, and neither did Gonzalez. But Gonzalez’ mother came out and told the young men that if they didn’t leave, she would call police, Lisuzzo said.

So they drove off. The group headed back toward Gonzalez’ house after Fabian started getting audio Facebook messages from his on-and-off girlfriend around 3 a.m., Lisuzzo said.

The group saw Gonzalez and the woman leave the house around 3:15 a.m. Gonzalez then ran out of their view, Lisuzzo said.

Soon Fabian saw the young woman walking toward the car, Lisuzzo said. That’s when he opened the door and was ambushed.

Gonzalez fled the scene after allegedly stabbing Fabian, hopping over fences as he eluded police. He was arrested less than an hour later in a gangway in the 2000 block of North La Crosse, according to his police report.

Gonzalez’ clothes werr splattered with blood, Lisuzzo said.

Gonzalez is the son of two pastors and plays bass guitar and drums at his parents’ house of worship, Assistant Public Defender Preston Jones said. Jones did not know the name of the church.

Previously, Gonzalez worked as a forklift operator for a company contracted by O’Hare Airport, Jones said. He stopped working three months ago because the company had gone out of business, Jones said, as a pony-tailed Gonzalez stood before Judge Peggy Chiampas in court.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Fabian’s family with funeral expenses.

Contributing: Sun-Times Media Wire