A Venezuelan migrant is charged with first-degree murder, accused of fatally stabbing a church volunteer who repeatedly tried to help as he struggled with homelessness upon arriving in Chicago, prosecutors say.
Carlos Ochoa-Ynaga, 49, is accused of killing Juan Quiroz, 34, a volunteer at Starting Point Community Church in Belmont Cragin, a congregation that helps people experiencing homelessness. The two men had come to know each other through Sunday conversations at the church, Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Grace Donnelly said in a detention filing.
But last spring, the church’s pastor asked Ochoa-Ynaga to leave after he allegedly became verbally aggressive toward other patrons. Even after that, Quiroz continued to show kindness, giving Ochoa-Ynaga money for food when he saw him in the neighborhood.
About a week after Ochoa-Ynaga was removed from the church, Quiroz loaned him an air pump to fill a tire on his electric bike. But when Quiroz asked for it back, Ochoa-Ynaga allegedly pulled out a knife and threatened him, Donnelly said. Quiroz told his brother about the incident.
The brothers left Chicago last summer for work and returned on September 20. The following afternoon, Quiroz went to a smoke shop in the 4600 block of West Diversey Avenue, where Ochoa-Ynaga happened to be working as a janitor, Donnelly said. Surveillance video showed Ochoa-Ynaga confronting Quiroz inside the store, then following him outside and across the street to his car, his right hand tucked into his pocket.
The men briefly moved out of camera range. When Quiroz reappeared on video, he was running backwards as Ochoa-Ynaga lunged forward and stabbed him in the chest, according to Donnelly.
Quiroz managed to get into his car and begin driving to a hospital. Along the way, he called his brother and told him that Ochoa-Ynaga had stabbed him with a knife. He lost consciousness and crashed before reaching the hospital. Doctors placed him on life support and he died four days later from a single stab wound to his chest.
Donnelly said audio and video recordings from inside the smoke shop captured Ochoa-Ynaga telling another employee about the stabbing shortly after it occurred. He also FaceTimed with a second employee, and during that conversation, he was allegedly seen holding a red knife in his hand.
Ochoa-Ynaga still lists a home address at the Brands Park field house, where the city of Chicago temporarily set up a migrant shelter during the height of the migrant crisis. Prosecutors say he fled to Riverside, California, after the killing, where he was located in mid-January. He was brought back to Chicago this month to face charges.
Judge James Costello detained him pending trial on a charge of first-degree murder.
