No bail in fatal West Englewood beating captured on video

A man charged with using a liquor bottle to beat 41-year-old Charles Johnson to death outside a West Englewood L stop last November was ordered held without bail Wednesday.

Antwan McNutt, 33, bludgeoned Johnson with a 1.70-liter bottle in full view of pedestrians near the 63rd Street Green Line stop, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Craig Taczy said at a bond hearing.

At least one passerby filmed the event with a camera phone.

“Please don’t tell me this was put on Facebook as well?” Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil asked the prosecutor.

“It was, your honor,” Taczy replied.

The video shows a man standing over the still form of another person laying on Ashland, swinging a “handle” of liquor in wide arcs and striking the victim about the head more than 20 times. Police said the attack took place around 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 28, 2016.

“The victim’s head was bouncing off the cement with each strike,” Taczy said. “After (McNutt) allegedly beat (Johnson), he threw the bottle in the street next to the victim and the bottle shattered.

In court Wednesday, McNutt stared intently at Taczy as the prosecutor read from a written description of the attack, at one point raising his hand as if trying to get the judge to let him interject, before leaning over to whisper to his attorney.

Witnesses said they saw McNutt leave the L station, looking for Johnson, “who was known to frequent that area,” Taczy said.

McNutt paced up and down Ashland, with witnesses following, and at some point found the liquor bottle—and then happened upon Johnson.

Taczy did not say why McNutt had been looking for Johnson, or why he attacked him.

McNutt was arrested in Wisconsin, where his lawyer said he works in a warehouse and as a painter, and had fought extradition back to Cook County.