Murder case suspect sees bond increased
A former Villa Park woman accused of murdering her live-in lover for the insurance money must raise $10,000 before being released from jail while awaiting trial.
Nicole M. Abusharif had been free for more than one year on home electronic monitoring after her family posted the required 10 percent of a $1 million bond.
Police arrested her again Monday for a bond violation after accusing 27-year-old Abusharif of ignoring a court order prohibiting her from leaving home for anything other than legal or medical reasons.
DuPage Circuit Judge John Kinsella increased the bond to $1.1 million Wednesday but he declined the prosecution's request to revoke bail entirely. Abusharif remained in jail later that evening.
She was living with her father in his Oak Lawn apartment. Her brother lives next door. A Villa Park police officer testified he saw Abusharif walking between the buildings late last month during a surveillance check. He said a neighbor also told him Abusharif is outside daily, including playing with children or hanging out at the pond behind her father's apartment.
"Our position has always been that she should never have been allowed to leave jail," prosecutor Joseph Ruggiero said. "She is a danger. She killed the person she supposedly loved in a cold, calculated and sick way. The presumption of guilt is great."
Abusharif is accused of using a plastic bag to suffocate 32-year-old Becky Klein late March 15, 2007, then dumping her body in the trunk of the couple's 1966 Ford Mustang in the garage of their home on Harvard Avenue in Villa Park.
Police made the gruesome discovery that March 17. The plastic garbage bag still was taped around Klein's head. Her hands and feet also were bound with the duct tape.
Abusharif pleaded innocent to charges of first-degree murder and concealment of a homicide. Police also accused an Elk Grove Village man, of whom Abusharif is a friend, with obstructing justice for allegedly lying during the investigation. He, too, has pleaded innocent.
Ruggiero said forensic experts tied Abusharif to the murder after finding her fingerprints on the tape and garbage bags as well as the bandannas used to gag and blindfold Klein.
The prosecutor said Abusharif, who had another lover, stood to benefit financially from the murder because she had a $300,000 life-insurance policy for Klein. Ruggiero portrayed Abusharif as a chronic liar and scammer who profited in eight earlier insurance claims for workers compensation, auto accidents and alleged falls.
But the defense team, Dennis Sopata and Robert Olson, has said it is physically impossible that their petite client could overpower Klein and load her body into a trunk. They said Abusharif has a serious back injury.
The attorneys also have said it is not surprising Abusharif's fingerprints were found at the crime scene since the couple was in the midst of packing holiday decorations and other items.