Last defendant pleads guilty in torture of disabled teen posted on Facebook

By Sun-Times staff

Tesfaye Cooper | Cook County Sheriff’s Office

The last of four defendants accused of physically and mentally torturing of a disabled man and posting a video to of their deeds to Facebook pleaded guilty Thursday.

The attack drew outrage across the city and the country, even prompting a response from then-President Barack Obama.

Tesfaye Cooper, 20, pleaded guilty according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Cooper is expected to be sentenced at a later court date.

Brittany Covington of Chicago; (clockwise from upper left) Tesfaye Cooper of Chicago; Jordan Hill of Carpentersville; and Tanishia Covington of Chicago. File Photo. | Chicago Police Department

Cooper was charged along with then 24-year-old Tanishia Covington and then 18 year-olds Brittany Covington and Jordan Hill after a Facebook Live video showed the group holding a schizophrenic white man captive in a West Side apartment, forcing him to drink toilet water and cutting his scalp with a knife while making him proclaim, “I love black people.”

RELATED COVERAGE:

Jordan Hill sentenced to 8 years in Facebook hate crime case

Three-year prison sentence for Facebook hate crime defendant Tanishia Covington

Brittany Covington gets probation in Facebook hate-crime case

Next Up In Crime

Joliet farmers wrangle cows thrown from semitrailer after crash on Interstate 80

1 killed, 3 wounded in shootings Tuesday in Chicago

Cook County judge ‘refused to speak’ with police investigating another judge

CPD shifting cops to more violent beats as summer approaches

Woman claims self-defense in murder of rapper Johnny May Cash, says he beat her

Man killed in Back of the Yards shooting