CHICAGO — A North Side man who allegedly entered his upstairs neighbor’s apartment without permission in August and suffered severe injuries when the victim attacked him with a machete is back in custody. Prosecutors say he burglarized his downstairs neighbor’s apartment while out on bail.
Judge William Fahy ordered Clayton Curcio, 32, jailed as a public safety threat during a detention hearing on the new allegations.
On August 19, Curcio allegedly entered his upstairs neighbor’s apartment in the 2800 block of North Clybourn through an unlocked door around 1 p.m. Officials said he confronted a 36-year-old man who lived there, and the situation turned physical.
As the incident escalated, the victim fetched a machete that his female roommate “keeps…by her bed for safety,” according to the Chicago Police Department’s arrest report. Officers reported that the victim shoved Curcio away while wielding the machete, but the fight continued, pouring onto the porch, back into the bedroom, and onto the second-floor landing.
Finally, “to prevent further battery to himself,” the man began hitting Curcio with the machete. The blade inflicted deep cuts on both of Curcio’s wrists, and he fled downstairs to his apartment, police said. Officers followed a blood trail and found Curcio lying on his own bed with a towel wrapped around both hands to stop his blood loss.
Curcio was still hospitalized and scheduled to undergo a second surgery to repair severe injuries to both arms when his case came up in bond court a couple of days later. Judge Fahy handled that hearing, too, and ordered Curcio to pay a $1,000 bail deposit to go home.
Now, prosecutors say Curcio broke into his downstairs neighbor’s apartment while on bail for breaking into the upstairs neighbor’s apartment.
On September 26, the property manager saw Curcio entering the downstairs unit while the 87-year-old man who lives there was away, police said. The manager confronted Curcio, who ran upstairs and locked himself in his apartment, according to CPD’s case report.
When the property manager entered the downstairs unit, he found the victim’s refrigerator and stove “moved halfway across the apartment as though the Defendant was trying to take them,” prosecutors said in a pretrial detention motion.
Cops arrested Curcio a few days later. He is charged with residential burglary and felony criminal damage to property.
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