Chicago police on Tuesday arrested Clarence Hebron, a convicted murderer who has been wanted in connection with a double-slaying in suburban Riverdale in November. Hebron was out of jail on “affordable bail” for reckless homicide and two separate counts of armed habitual criminal when police said he killed his 26-year-old girlfriend, Jessica Beal, and her 27-year-old brother, Damien, on November 27.
When officers pulled Hebron over for a traffic violation in the 6700 block of South Ashland on Tuesday, the 33-year-old allegedly bolted from the car. Cops ran after Hebron and took him into custody when he circled back to the vehicle he bailed out of, according to Assistant State’s Attorney Franka D’Antignac.
Cops found a gun with an extended ammunition magazine strapped to Hebron’s chest when they arrested him, she said.
His defense attorney said Hebron works full time for a community organization called “Public Safety.”
Prosecutors on Wednesday charged Hebron with felony theft and armed habitual criminal. Judge David Navarro ordered him held without bail on a murder warrant and for failing to appear in court since December for his two previously-pending armed habitual criminal cases and a pending reckless homicide case.
The theft charge stems from allegations that he took cargo from rail cars, Navarro said. The judge set bail in the new armed habitual criminal and theft cases at $1 million.
His extensive criminal background includes a 2007 conviction for second-degree murder in which he and his cousin fatally shot a man, D’Antignac said Wednesday.
The FBI offered a “substantial reward” for information leading to Hebron’s arrest after the murder arrest warrants were issued in the Riverdale slayings in December.
At the time of the Beals’ murders, Hebron was awaiting trial for allegedly killing a woman with his car as he fled from police in April 2019. At the time of that incident, he was already on bail for two separate counts of Class X armed habitual criminal, according to court records.
He had been held without bail since the woman’s death, but Cook County Judge Dennis Porter slashed his bail to $50,000 on each of the three cases over the summer, and Hebron went home by posting deposit bonds totaling just $15,000.
The armed habitual criminal charges stem from two separate incidents in early 2019. In one case, Chicago police and federal agents raided Hebron’s home and recovered a firearm, a source said. Hebron wasn’t home at the time, but his girlfriend and newborn baby were. Police eventually found him, and prosecutors charged him in the case.
Around the same time, cops allegedly found a gun in Hebron’s car after he crashed the vehicle while police followed him on the South Side. He got away, but officers later arrested him at work, according to CPD records. A judge released him on bail.
Just a couple of months later, Hebron again sped away from officers when they tried to stop him for a traffic violation in Englewood on the afternoon of April 18, 2019.
Prosecutors say he crashed his car into a vehicle driven by 32-year-old Dana Hubbard. She died a few days later.
Hebron is one of at least 34 people who are accused of murdering or shooting victims in Cook County last year while on bail for other serious crimes, according to CWBChicago research.
