CHICAGO — Barely a month after a Cook County judge released a man from electronic monitoring to await trial for a felony gun and domestic battery case, the man is back in jail. He’s now accused of trying to kill a woman and her two children by ramming their car with his vehicle in a domestic incident.
Judge Anthony Calabrese yesterday held Keoni Zucco, 32, without bail.
Back on April 15, prosecutors charged Zucco with aggravated domestic battery by strangulation, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and other felonies following a domestic incident in Cicero.
Prosecutors said at the time that Zucco and his then-girlfriend got into an argument in his apartment, causing the woman to leave and get her car out of the garage. She stopped the car in front of his apartment to quickly run back inside to get some items, prosecutors said.
Zucco confronted her, threw her belongings from the second-floor balcony, and pushed her into his apartment through the open door, Assistant State’s Attorney Rhianna Biernat said in April. He allegedly slammed the woman into a wall, punched her repeatedly, and choked her.
Biernat said a passerby saw the attack unfolding through the apartment’s open door and called 911.
Police found the woman’s car idling outside the apartment with her 5-year-old daughter still inside the vehicle. Zucco’s apartment door was closed when they went upstairs. Biernat said they spent 20 or 30 minutes knocking on the door before they decided to force their way in.
They immediately saw blood on the walls and floor and heard the sound of a firearm being racked in the next room, Biernat said. The woman emerged from a room with “numerous visible and obvious injuries,” including cuts, bumps, and bruises on her face and body, according to Biernat.
The officers arrested Zucco and allegedly found a loaded handgun behind the toilet in his bathroom.
A court officer advised Judge William Fahy that Zucco scored highly on a domestic battery assessment. Should Zucco be released, the officer said, “high restrictive conditions” should be given.
Fahy ordered him to pay a $10,000 bail deposit and to stay home on electronic monitoring and GPS devices.
But Judge Ramon Ocasio ordered the electronic monitoring bracelet to be removed on August 4, according to court records.
On Tuesday, five weeks after being taken off his ankle monitor, Zucco got into another domestic altercation in suburban Maine Township.
A 29-year-old woman placed her two young children into her car and fled after arguing with him, a sheriff’s office press release said. Zucco chased them in his own car and repeatedly rammed their vehicle until it became disabled.
Both children were ejected from their car seats, the sheriff’s office said.
He is charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder and felony domestic battery, according to court records.
His criminal background includes five convictions for misdemeanor domestic battery and felony arson in 2018.
Editor’s note: Because the allegations stem from an incident outside the Chicago city limits, Zucco will not be included in CWBChicago’s list of people charged with shooting, killing, or trying to shoot or kill people while on felony bond. He will, however, be listed as a “dishonorable mention.”