Editor’s note: This report contains graphic descriptions of allegations made by prosecutors in bond court.
Six months after DeQuan Mayfield was released early from prison for his third, fourth, and fifth burglary convictions, he crawled through a Humboldt Park apartment window around 4 a.m on July 12 and confronted a woman in the bedroom, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The 23-year-old woman was lying naked in bed, prosecutors said. She asked if she could put some clothes on.
“I’m not a pervert,” Mayfield allegedly answered as he displayed a knife with a ski mask on his face and socks on his hands. “I’ve been doing this for years. It’s how I make money.”
For the next three hours, Mayfield repeatedly raped, beat, choked, and threatened to kill the woman in an ordeal that ended only when she managed to escape after he said he was going to set her on fire, prosecutors said.
During a bail hearing Wednesday, veteran Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy told Judge Arthur Willis that Mayfield and the woman don’t know each other. They wound up in the same residential building on the 2800 block of West Division by happenstance — she was housesitting for a friend and Mayfield was a guest in a separate apartment downstairs.
As the woman watched TV in bed early in the morning, Mayfield allegedly pushed a window unit air conditioner out of place and climbed through a front bedroom window of the upstairs apartment. He confronted the woman and refused to let her put on clothes as she asked, Murphy said.
Instead, Mayfield allegedly grabbed her by her ponytail and led her room to room looking for things to steal.
In the bedroom, he put on a condom and forced her to perform oral sex at knifepoint, Murphy said. If she “did a good job,” Mayfield allegedly told the woman, he would refrain from killing her. He then moved her to a couch and raped her, according to the allegations.
Moving to a child’s unoccupied bedroom, Mayfield put a pair of the youngster’s underwear on the woman’s head and threatened to come back and hurt the child “if she wasn’t good,” Murphy said.
In the main bedroom, Mayfield raped the woman two more times before taking her to a bathroom where he forced her to shower, according to Murphy.
Mayfield allegedly threw bleach on the woman and made her brush her teeth and gargle mouthwash in an apparent attempt to destroy DNA evidence.
Then, he held a large kitchen knife to the woman’s throat and told her to drink the bleach, Murphy said. At that point, the woman managed to grab mace from her purse. She sprayed Mayfield and wrestled him for control of the kitchen knife, Murphy continued.
As they struggled, Mayfield’s ski mask came off and the woman saw his face, Murphy said. The fight continued. Murphy said Mayfield punched the woman in her face repeatedly, choked her with both hands, and wrapped a cord around her neck to stop her breathing. She went limp. Mayfield allegedly dragged her to the living room with the cord around her neck.
There, Mayfield covered the woman with a bleach-soaked towel and a blanket, Murphy said.
“I don’t care if you’re faking,” Mayfield allegedly told the woman. “I’m gonna burn your body, and you’re gonna die.”
When Mayfield walked to the back of the apartment, the woman got up and bolted out the front door, Murphy said. Surveillance videos allegedly show Mayfield in the alley as the woman grabbed an extra key from under her car and then sped away to a hospital for help. She had red lines on her neck, bloody eyes, and bruises across her body, Murphy said.
Chicago police, who found a cord and a bleach-soaked towel in the building’s front yard, issued a community alert about the attack a few days later.
Detectives learned that Mayfield had been a houseguest in the downstairs apartment on the night of the attack, Murphy said. After seeing his criminal history — a recently-paroled, five-time convicted burglar who was convicted of criminal sexual assault as a juvenile — investigators decided to include his picture in a photo lineup that they presented to the victim. She picked him out as the attacker, Murphy said. She allegedly picked Mayfield out again during a live line-up after police arrested him this week.
Mayfield’s defense attorney said he has been working as a security guard for the past month, and he has a bachelor’s degree in fashion from Columbia College. He’s also on medication for psychiatric conditions, the attorney said.
Prosecutors charged Mayfield with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated criminal sexual assault. Judge Arthur Willis ordered him held without bail. Willis also ordered him held without bail at the request of the Illinois Department of Corrections, which will be considering revocation of Mayfield’s parole.
In 2013, Mayfield was charged with burglary after he allegedly stole a laptop from a female DePaul University student’s dorm room as she slept.
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