Attorney wants separate case in Arlington Heights murder

The attorney for one of the four men charged in last month’s slaying of a widower in his Arlington Heights home says he will try to separate his client’s case from his co-defendants’.

John Fairman represents Azari Braden, a 19-year-old Southern Illinois University engineering student who has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of George Nellessen, 55, who Cook County prosecutors say was bludgeoned and stabbed to death during a robbery on April 12.

Also charged with first-degree murder are Azari Braden’s brother, Armon Braden, 20; Marlon L. Green, 20; and 19-year-old Mathew Nellessen, son of the victim.

Fairman insists his client’s involvement was minimal and that he never saw the Nellessen home.

“He’s not even alleged to have been in the house,” Fairman said.

Prosecutors say Mathew Nellessen orchestrated the robbery and solicited help from Green, whom he met during a stint at Cook County jail. Prosecutors said Green contacted Armon Braden. Azari Braden is accused of having driven his brother and Green to the Nellessen home.

Mathew Nellessen and Armon Braden duct-taped the victim to a chair, prosecutors said. They demanded he divulge information about his financial accounts and forced him to sign a check for $100,000 made out to his son, prosecutors said. After George Nellessen threatened to call the police, authorities said, Mathew Nellessen stuffed a rag in his mouth, duct-taped his eyes and nose and hit him five times with a baseball bat. Nellessen then stabbed his father in the neck, prosecutors said.

A friend who came to check on George Nellessen two days later was met at the door by Mathew Nellessen who initially refused to let her enter. When she asked how George Nellessen was, Mathew replied, “You will know right away,” said Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Maria McCarthy during the defendants’ bond hearing last month. The witness found George Nellessen still taped to the chair in the family room. Mathew Nellessen fled in a car and led police on a 30-minute chase through Hoffman Estates and Barrington Hills before he was taken into custody in East Dundee.

Prosecutors did not indicate at the bond hearing that Azari Braden ever entered the Nellessen home.

“Our position is that (the evidence) is not going to be enough to show he is as involved as they say,” Fairman said.

Mathew Nellessen, who was on probation for a 2009 residential burglary at the time of his arrest, is being held on no bail. A Cook County judge set Green’s bail at $3 million. Bail for Armon and Azari Braden was set at $2 million and $1.5 million, respectively. All four defendants remain at Cook County jail.

Their next court date is May 16 in Rolling Meadows.