The shocking beating of a foreign exchange student and her American friend in a trendy, generally safe Chicago neighborhood in 2010 became an international symbol of the city’s violence.
Attacked from behind as they walked under a viaduct in Bucktown after a night celebrating their recent successes, Natasha McShane and Stacy Jurich were each struck on the head by a mugger wielding a baseball bat who snatched their purses and fled.
As Heriberto Viramontes’ guilt was announced in a Cook County courtroom Thursday evening, McShane, who was left severely brain damaged by the attack and no can longer speak, was back home in Northern Ireland unaware that a trial had even been going on for the past two weeks.
Jurich, now 25, who had wept on the witness stand while viewing photos of the crime scene, was in the courtroom to hear the verdict and gave a long embrace to McShane’s mother after it was read.
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“The last 31/2 years have been the hardest time of my entire life,” Jurich, wearing a black dress and silver cross necklace, later told reporters as she fought back tears. “It was a struggle for me, but it was a struggle to have to face what happened to my best friend Natasha, something I’ll never forget.”
“There hasn’t been a night that passed in 31/2 years that I didn’t wake up in a night terror reliving what happened,” said Jurich, now engaged to be married. “To know that this person can never walk on the street with me again is extremely comforting. … I’m really looking forward to my life going forward.”
The jury of eight men and four women deliberated a little more than three hours before convicting Viramontes, 34, on all 10 counts of attempted first-degree murder, armed robbery and aggravated battery. He faces 120 years in prison. No sentencing date was immediately set.
Viramontes, who cleared his throat nervously before the verdict was read, stuck his lower lip out at his two sisters and mother before sheriff’s deputies led him away.
McShane, a petite and vibrant woman who was taking graduate classes in urban development at the University of Illinois at Chicago, now struggles with basic tasks like drinking from a cup and is cared for by her parents in Northern Ireland. Jurors saw short video clips showing the limitations of her daily life.
After the verdict, State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez acknowledged that the brutal 2010 attack had left Chicago with a “black eye.”
“Chicago is a beautiful city and it’s a shame that … instead of welcoming our visitors with an open heart, (McShane) was confronted with a baseball bat,” Alvarez said. “I am very pleased that this man has been held responsible for the brutal beating and senseless beating of both (women).”
The Irish media had followed the case closely, and family in Northern Ireland had been watching the local coverage. Those news stories had brought up some difficult memories, said Natasha’s grandmother, Bernadette McShane, speaking by phone from Northern Ireland.
“It’s hard listening to all she came through,” she said after learning about the verdict in a phone call from her daughter.
“I’m just relieved that it’s all over. Total relief that it’s all over,” she said. “It’s not over, of course, for Natasha. She got a sentence too.”
McShane’s family — her mother, father, a sister and brother flew to Chicago to attend the trial — declined to speak with reporters. Alvarez read a statement from McShane’s brother, Conor, saying the guilty finding “provides us with a sense of justice and it provides us with a sense of great relief.”
“This crime against my sister has changed her life forever and it has had a devastating impact on our entire family,” he wrote. “Natasha’s life is a daily struggle, and this attack has ruined her life and it has brought great sadness and sorrow to our home.”
The two friends were out celebrating early April 23, 2010, after McShane had landed an internship that would allow her to extend her stay in Chicago and Jurich closed a significant deal for her financial services company.
They ate dinner, had drinks and went dancing — McShane in her favorite brown leather boots — and then began walking north on Damen Avenue back to Jurich’s duplex about 3 a.m. Without warning, both women were hit by a baseball bat from behind as they walked under a viaduct in the 1800 block of North Damen Avenue. Jurich testified that the mugger, who wore a hoodie that concealed his face, called her a “stupid bitch” as she struggled to keep her purse.
The man took their purses and a white plastic H&M; bag that prosecutors said contained McShane’s passport and papers from her graduate course work. Authorities later recovered the plastic bag — with Viramontes’ fingerprint on it — in a trash bin at a gas station at Augusta Boulevard and Western Avenue where he and an exotic dancer named Marcy Cruz were recorded on security cameras using Jurich’s credit card.
Cruz was a crucial prosecution witness at trial. She testified she had stayed in a van near the crime scene after Viramontes grabbed a bat and went to rob people.
Prosecutors in their closing arguments on Thursday focused on recordings from the Cook County Jail that they said convicted Viramontes with his own words. Even though inmates are warned that their calls are being recorded, Viramontes essentially admitted robbing both women, though he said he never intended to kill them.
Assistant State’s Attorney John Maher carried the wooden Rawlings baseball bat used in the attack as he paced the courtroom while giving an emotional closing argument. Maher also again played for jurors the jailhouse phone calls made by Viramontes.
“This buries that guy right there,” said Maher, his voice rising as he walked over to point at Viramontes. “The trial ended the moment those (recordings) were published.”
“Behold, Heriberto Viramontes,” Maher said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, “every parent’s nightmare.”
Juror David Wells, 50, a chemist who lives in Buffalo Grove, said the phone calls Viramontes made from jail were “very damaging to his case.”
He also said the testimony by Cruz, who cut a deal with prosecutors for a 22-year prison sentence, was “corroborated by several witnesses.”
“We just felt that the prosecution put together a very complete case that didn’t leave a doubt in any of the jurors’ minds,” Wells said by telephone Thursday night.
Viramontes’ attorneys had argued there was nothing linking him to the attack except his use of Jurich’s credit cards at a gas station. Assistant Public Defender Chandra Smith said Cruz could not be trusted and asked jurors to ignore his jailhouse phone calls since they were only hearing portions of longer conversations.
Another Viramontes attorney, Richard Labrador, attacked the state’s forensic evidence, saying no blood was found embedded in the baseball bat and disputing that it was really Viramontes’ fingerprint on the white bag.
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The defense said it plans to appeal.
Viramontes’ sister, Mary Lou, said she was upset that her family and her mother — who is undergoing treatment for cancer but had been to nearly every court day — were not told when the jury had reached a verdict. The family arrived back in the courtroom a few moments after it had been announced.
“It was not fair,” she said.
Tribune reporters Colleen Mastony and Michelle Manchir contributed.
Twitter @SteveSchmadeke