Update: The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Williams was released from electronic monitoring just a few days before Calderon was killed. Prosecutors said during his bond hearing that he was awaiting trial for a juvenile burglary charge. The Tribune reports that the burglary was to a suburban gun store.
A Cook County prosecutor struggled to explain why an 18-year-old Old Town man fatally stabbed a woman as she worked Sunday morning at a Walgreens in Wicker Park.
“Sometimes people do evil things,” Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said moments after he described surveillance video footage that allegedly shows Sincere Williams stabbing Olga Maria Calderon ten times near the store’s check-out counter.
A judge ordered Williams, who reportedly suffers from mental health conditions, held without bail.
Williams was “methodical” as he killed Calderon, Murphy said, “he never runs.”
He even wore a second set of clothing under his outer garments to allow for a quick change of appearance after the crime, the state said.
Calderon, a 32-year-old mother of two, was stocking shelves near the front of the store at 1372 North Milwaukee when Williams entered the front door, walked directly to her, and wrapped his arm around her neck from behind at 9:36 a.m., according to Murphy.
Video shows Calderon struggling with the attacker. He then pins her head to the counter by pressing a gloved hand into her face, forcing her head into the check-out island. Murphy said Calderon was looking at the surveillance camera as the attacker used his other hand to stab her in the neck. He continues stabbing her in the head and upper back, even after she falls into a fetal position on the floor, according to the state.
“He stabs her over and over again,” Murphy said. Then, “he leaves. Calmly walks out.”
Medical examiners later determined that Calderon was stabbed four times in the face, three times in the neck, and once in the chest, back, and left hand, according to Murphy.
Police found the attacker’s Chicago Bears hoodie, jeans, and a bloody knife on a nearby side street.
Detectives pieced together a string of videos that eventually showed Williams leaving his home in a Chicago Bears hoodie and distinctive jeans before the murder, Murphy said. When Williams returned home, he was allegedly wearing a different outfit — but the same shoes.
Some surveillance footage clearly shows Williams’ face and blood on his pants as he walks away from the area where cops later found the hoodie and knife, Murphy said.
Police arrested Williams at his home Sunday evening, hours after his mother drove him to Northwestern Memorial Hospital to receive two or three stitches to his hand for cuts that he said he received from a fence. Murphy said the injuries on his hand align with cuts found on a glove discarded near the crime scene.
In Williams’ bedroom, cops found packaging for a knife that is the same brand and model number as the bloody knife police recovered after the murder, according to Murphy. Gym shoes that match those worn by the killer were reportedly found in his room, too.
Four days before the murder, the same Walgreens was robbed by a man who brandished a knife that appears identical to the one used by the killer, Murphy said. Video shows the robber has the same build as Williams and the robber wore the same distinctive mask that the killer wore, he said. No robbery charges have been filed against Williams, though.
“I can’t give you a definitive motive,” Murphy told Judge Arthur Willis,” other than sometimes people do evil things.”
Assistant Public Defender Chris Anderson said Williams needs medication for schizophrenia and noted that Williams has previously been hospitalized for mental health issues. Willis ordered Williams to receive treatment in jail.
A GoFundMe campaign to finance Calderon’s funeral and provide support to her children has raised more than $53,000 as of early Wednesday afternoon.