A 43-year-old man is accused of beating a man to death in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood on the Northwest Side and then taking his possessions.
Oscar Cruz, 43, faces charges of first-degree murder and robbery in the beating death of Peter S. Krzystyniak, 55, late Sunday in the 5700 block of West Diversey Avenue.
Prosecutors did not offer a motive for why Cruz allegedly killed Krzystyniak, but noted that Cruz was found with Krzystyniak’s backpack when he was taken into custody Monday afternoon in the 5600 block of West Fullerton Avenue.
The backpack contained a laptop computer, as well as Krzystyniak’s wallet, cellphone and identification cards.
Prosecutors said both men had been experiencing homelessness, with Cruz living outdoors for the past two weeks while he was going through a divorce.
A surveillance camera at a retail store recorded both men entering a wooden shed nearby that people sometimes use for shelter, prosecutors said. Cruz was allegedly seen coming and going from the shed multiple times overnight into Monday morning, but Krzystyniak never left the shed again.
During his trips to and from the shed, Cruz was seen wearing latex gloves and carrying a Grey Goose vodka bottle that appeared to have blood on it, prosecutors said.
An employee of the retail store discovered Krzystyniak’s body early Monday morning and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Krzystyniak, of the 6300 block of West 59th Street, died of traumatic brain injuries from an assault, according to the medical examiner’s office. His death was ruled a homicide.
That bottle and a shirt Cruz was allegedly wearing at the time of the attack were later recovered and suspected blood on the items was awaiting testing by the state police crime lab, prosecutors said.
In custody, Cruz allegedly claimed that Krzystyniak had hit or pushed him earlier in the night and also allegedly admitted to later striking Krzystyniak with the bottle.
An assistant public defender noted that Cruz had never been charged with a crime before, was working part-time as a plumber and suggested he could be placed on electronic monitoring.
“There’s no one who actually saw what happened in that shed,” Judge Barbara Dawkins acknowledged in her ruling. However, the judge told Cruz she believed “overwhelming circumstantial evidence points to your guilt in this case.”
Cruz is expected back in court Oct. 24.
