Suspect in murder of Zion girls on hunger strike in jail
A man incarcerated in the Lake County jail awaiting trial in the notorious 2005 Mother's Day murders of two little girls in Zion is on a hunger strike, his lawyer said Friday.
Attorney Jed Stone said Jorge Avila-Torrez, 25, formerly of Zion, stopped consuming food and water on two different occasions after authorities placed him in a cell for 23 hours a day and told him not to communicate with other inmates.
Avila-Torrez's first hunger strike started "a couple of weeks ago" but lasted only four or five days, Stone said. The second strike started last week and continued through Friday, he said.
"Leaving a person in a cage for 23 hours a day and prohibiting him from talking to other inmates around him does psychological damage to a person," Stone said. "It's cruel and unusual punishment, in my opinion."
Lake County sheriff's spokesman Chris Covelli said Avila-Torrez was placed in protective custody for his own safety because he is being held on charges he killed children. He was placed "under medical observation" because of statements he has made and will receive medical help should it be needed, Covelli said.
"Corrections staff has been monitoring his commissary account and noted he's made purchases of food items which are located in his cell," he said. "It's not uncommon for inmates to claim they are carrying out a 'hunger strike' to receive special attention and consideration. When this occurs, medical staff is notified and processes of monitoring the inmate's physical well-being begins."
Avila-Torrez was returned to Lake County in December to stand trial on 18 counts of murder in the deaths of 8-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias. The girls were found dead in a Zion park, a day after disappearing on Mother's Day 2005.
The murder case made national headlines after investigators initially zeroed in on Jerry Hobbs, Laura Hobbs' father. He confessed to the killings after being interrogated by investigators for nearly 24 hours.
But after Hobbs spent five years in jail waiting for trial, DNA evidence pointed to someone else, and Hobbs was released. He has since sued Lake County for wrongful imprisonment.
While Hobbs was behind bars, Avila-Torrez was charged in the 2009 murder of a Navy sailor at a barracks in Virginia, and for stalking attacks on three women in northern Virginia in 2010. He was sentenced to death for the murder last year, then sentenced to five life sentences plus 168 years for the 2010 attacks.
DNA evidence collected from Avila-Torrez linked him to the Zion slayings. He was 16 at the time of the killings and lived near where the girls were found.
If convicted of the murders, Torrez could be sentenced to another 100 years in prison. Officials said a conviction normally would result in a life sentence, but because Torrez was 16 at the time of the killings, his maximum is 100 years.