Bail reduced for defendant in attack on Crystal Lake man
One of four people charged in January with kidnapping and torturing a Crystal Lake man received a bail reduction.
According to court records, Brittany Covington's bail was reduced from no bail to $500,000, requiring she post 10 percent, or $50,000, to be released from custody. Covington has not done so and remains in custody, according to the Cook County jail website.
Jordan Hill, 18; Tesfaye Cooper, 18; Covington, 19; and her sister Tanishia Covington, 25, initially were ordered held on no bail on the charges, which include aggravated kidnapping, unlawful restraint, aggravated battery with a weapon and a hate crime. If convicted of the most serious crimes, the defendants face up to 30 years in prison.
All four defendants have pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors say Hill, a former student at the Core Academy in Aurora and Conant High School in Hoffman Estates; Cooper, a former Hoffman Estates High School student; and the Covington sisters, of Chicago, bound and gagged the victim, then slapped, punched, taunted and threatened to kill him during the attack, which unfolded between Dec. 31 and Jan. 2. Part of it was streamed live on Facebook.
Over the course of the attack, the defendants cut the young man's scalp, ordered him to drink toilet water and forced him to utter racial epithets, according to prosecutors, who also claim Hill sent a message to the teen's mother demanding $300 in ransom.