Wearing identical white T-shirts printed with the face of Samantha Welch, three women sat stoically in court Saturday until Adam Ruiz appeared before the judge.
Ruiz, charged with killing Welch, his half sister, and her girlfriend Celiacruz Reyes in October and then setting the apartment on fire, expressed no emotion or recognition of his family. But when prosecutors began recounting the horrific details, Fatima Ruiz, sister of Adam Ruiz and best friend of Welch, couldn’t hold back the tears any longer.
And after Ruiz, diminutive and frail-looking in his flimsy white prison jumpsuit, was led away, the three women rushed for the door and broke down in the courthouse hallway, weeping and clutching one another.
“I love him. He’s my brother, and I’ll always love him,” said Fatima Ruiz, 22. “But I’m hoping for life in prison without parole. I want him to suffer. I want him to sit and think about how much he hurt Sam and Celia and the rest of us.”
Adam Ruiz, 22, of Denver, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and aggravated arson in connection with the Oct. 16 incident on Chicago’s Northwest Side. He was extradited from Colorado this week and was ordered held without bail Saturday by Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr.
Ruiz had been sharing a basement apartment with Welch and Reyes, both 18, according to prosecutors and family members. It was a troubled housing arrangement, in which Ruiz and his girlfriend would often argue over money with Welch and Reyes.
About 11 p.m. Oct. 16, Chicago firefighters responded to the three-flat on the 4500 block of West Parker Avenue in the Belmont Gardens neighborhood and found the basement apartment engulfed in flames, Assistant State’s Attorney Barry Quinn said in court Saturday.
Welch had extensive burns but very little soot in her airway, Quinn said, indicating she was dead before the fire started. Her death was ruled a homicide by unspecified means by the Cook County medical examiner’s office, he said. Reyes’ death was determined to be homicide by asphyxiation and strangulation.
A police dog detected a fire accelerant on the sofa and on the floor of the bedroom where the fire started, Quinn said.
Ruiz had moved out of the apartment the day before, the prosecutor said. He later admitted to the killings and arson to a witness, who testified before a grand jury. In May, he made a third-party admission to a family member, who also testified.
In June, Ruiz left for Denver, Quinn said, where he admitted the crime to two family friends. He was put in police custody June 29 and confessed to killing Welch and Reyes to Denver police.
Tanya Serrano, Ruiz’s aunt, stood with her 13-year-old daughter and Fatima Ruiz in the hallway. Serrano said her nephew had violent outbursts growing up that led to him being placed in the custody of the state Department of Children and Family Services. For a while, Serrano said she was his foster mother but that the arrangement didn’t work out because of his behavioral problems.
Still, Serrano said she considered him to be “like a son.”
Adam Ruiz is biologically the cousin of Fatima Ruiz, but he is her adopted brother, Serrano said.
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Both Serrano and Fatima Ruiz said they’ve struggled with the combination of grief for Welch and Reyes, and anger toward Adam Ruiz.
“When you have something tragic like this happen, you turn to your family,” said Serrano, 35. “How do you turn to your family when it was one of your family members who caused the pain?”
Fatima Ruiz said Welch was her closest friend.
“We were two crazy, goofy girls. She was my best friend in the world,” she said. “We would tell each other everything.”
The two last saw each other just a few days before Welch and Reyes were killed. Then pregnant, Fatima Ruiz said Welch had been excited about meeting her son, for whom she’d already bought gifts. But that wouldn’t come to pass: Fatima Ruiz’s son was born Nov, 5, one day before Welch’s birthday.
The two women said Adam Ruiz didn’t make eye contact with them in the courtroom.
“I’m sad because I lost the person closest to me,” Fatima Ruiz said. “I’m also filled with so much rage, and it makes it 10 times worse that it’s my brother.”
“In some small part of him, I think he realizes what he did was wrong,” Serrano said. “Unfortunately, it’s too late.”
Adam Ruiz is due back in court Monday.
Twitter @GregTrotterTrib