A man is facing a murder charge nearly three years after he beat his girlfriend so badly that she suffered brain injuries that eventually caused her death, Cook County prosecutors said in court Tuesday.
Zebediah Campbell, 40, repeatedly struck Rasheedah Beyah in the head with his closed fist on April 24, 2019 in the bedroom of an apartment in the first block of West 71st Street in the Park Manor neighborhood, prosecutors said.
The beating allegedly caused Beyah to suffer a seizure and Campbell asked a friend who had fallen asleep on a couch for help moving her into bed, prosecutors said.
When the friend saw Beyah’s badly battered face, he urged Campbell to call paramedics and she was taken to a hospital, prosecutors said.
In addition to brain injuries Beyah suffered in the attack, doctors at hospitals where she was treated also found evidence of previous beatings, including a fractured rib and nose, prosecutors said.
Beyah continued to experience seizures and required the use of a wheelchair and caregiver until she was found dead in her home on Aug. 25 the following year, prosecutors said. She was 42.
An autopsy conducted by the Cook County medical examiner’s office concluded her injuries in the attack caused her death, which was ruled a homicide, prosecutors said.
Campbell was initially charged in 2019 with a count of aggravated domestic battery and he was ordered held without bail in the Cook County Jail, court records show.
Judge Maryam Ahmad on Tuesday ordered Campbell held without bail on the latest charge as well.
He was expected back in court on that charge March 21.
