Chicago

A Nightmare Night Out for Lincoln Park Woman Who Met a Man At a Bar

Prosecutors laid it out in court on Sunday: A Lincoln Park woman’s night out turned into a nightmare that lasted multiple days in mid-July, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting. 

The woman, 22, found a guy she met at a bar in her bed the morning after she’d been out drinking heavily with him and others, according to the Sun-Times. With the help of her roommate, she kicked the man out. But he returned the next day, somehow entered her apartment in the 2200 block of North Racine and allegedly tried to smother her with a pillow, according to authorities. 

The alleged strangulation took place at 5 a.m. on July 21, when the woman woke up to see the man that she’d met at the bar two days earlier standing over her. He then put a pillow over her face and put all of his weight on top of it, according to Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Nancee Hofheimer. 

Hofheimer said the woman was able to break free and scream, at which point a male friend who’d been staying in her apartment woke up and chased the man, who fled out a back door.

The accused attacker, Derek Larbie, 20, appeared in bond court on Sunday, where Judge Michael Clancy ordered him to remain in jail without bond. 

Larbie, who is apparently from the East Coast, recently was arrested in Pennsylvania on unrelated charges and extradited back to Chicago, authorities said. He arrived at O’Hare Airport on Dec. 15, and Chicago Police arrested him on charges including attempted murder. 

Larbie met the victim outside a bar on July 19. They proceeded to a nightclub, where witnesses said Larbie fondled the victim on the dance floor, according to Hofheimer. The victim was heavily intoxicated. On her ride home, she was vomiting out a car window. 

Larbie and others also were in the car. 

Along with the woman’s roommate, Larbie helped carry the victim upstairs to her apartment — and the night was supposed to be over. 

The roommate gave Larbie and a friend of his a ride to a CTA Red Line station. However, surveillance images showed they never boarded a train, and instead used a ride-sharing service to return to the block where the victim lives. Somehow, Larbie was able to get back in the apartment, and the victim awoke to find him in her bed the morning of July 20. The victim and her roommate eventually kicked him out. 

But Larbie allegedly was back in the apartment a second time the next morning; it’s unclear how he got in. That’s when he allegedly tried to smother the victim, Hofheimer said. 

After the victim’s male friend chased out Larbie, police were called — and the victim told them her story. 

“Victim had an abrasion to her face, redness to her upper body and throat, and pain,” Hofheimer said. Police were able to obtain a telephone number for Larbie because he had programmed it into the victim’s phone. 

The chilling tale didn’t end there. 

A motion-detection surveillance camera, installed by the woman’s rear door after the alleged attack, recorded Larbie returning five days later, on July 26, along with a masked accomplice. The two were “creeping up the stairs of the victim’s enclosed porch,” Hofheimer said. 

Larbie stared at the surveillance camera before turning it to face the wall. Both men then fled, Hofheimer said. The victim was not home at the time.

Copyright CHIST - SunTimes
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