A jury on Thursday convicted a Logan Square man of murder after prosecutors said he killed his girlfriend, nearly decapitated her, and stuffed her body inside a duffel bag that sat in his bedroom until police discovered her remains days later during a well-being check.
Genesis Silva, 36, was found guilty in the June 2023 death of Brittany Battaglia and will stay detained as Judge Mary Brosnahan and attorneys work through post-trial motions ahead of sentencing.
Silva’s attorneys had argued he hid Battaglia’s body after she died because he was convinced people would think he was responsible for her death, not because he killed her.
Battaglia’s roommate last saw her around 6:30 p.m. on June 2, 2023, when she left their apartment saying she planned to walk to Silva’s nearby home and then head to a party. When she did not return, the roommate and the roommate’s boyfriend filed separate missing person reports.
Chicago police detectives began staking out Silva’s home as part of the investigation after a friend of Silva’s told 911 dispatchers he had grown “concerned” about Silva during a lunch the two shared that day, prosecutors said.
Detectives spotted Silva leaving the house, stopped him for a conversation, and he then walked them back to his apartment in the 2000 block of North Kimball, a red and black backpack draped over his shoulder.
Inside his bedroom, detectives found Battaglia’s body stuffed inside a large duffel bag, prosecutors alleged. The Cook County Medical Examiner ruled her death a homicide caused by multiple sharp force wounds. She had been nearly decapitated, according to prosecutors.
The backpack Silva had been carrying when police approached him allegedly contained a machete. A second machete was later found in his car. Both the machete from the backpack and the bag containing Battaglia’s remains tested positive for blood.
In Silva’s kitchen, investigators found two garbage bags near a tarp containing shoes, a bucket, a paint suit, gloves, bleach, and a Swiffer, prosecutors alleged. Police also recovered three handwritten lists of items, including cleaning supplies, chemicals, and boots, as well as a note that allegedly read: “Can you ask average time until smell, etc?”
Silva’s past surfaced prominently during the case. Silva was charged with attempted murder and sexual assault of his wife in 2009, prosecutors said. After returning home from a party, the couple argued, and he allegedly strangled her, repeatedly asking, “Why won’t you just die?”
The 2009 case was eventually resolved when prosecutors allowed Silva to plead guilty to a single charge of criminal sexual abuse in exchange for a two-year probation sentence.
His ex-wife, speaking to the Chicago Sun-Times after Battaglia’s death, did not mince words.
“He had a deep hate for women,” she said. “It’s definitely one of those American Psycho type of things because it’s like two completely different sides of a person.”
At his initial bail hearing in the Battaglia case, Silva’s defense attorney urged the court to see a different side of her client. She described him as a Whitney Young graduate who owned Genesis Platforms, an audiovisual consulting company, and said he participated in harm reduction efforts by distributing Narcan and discouraging narcotics use.
“By all accounts, Mr. Silva has turned his life around,” the attorney argued.
Silva and Battaglia had been dating since the spring of 2022, prosecutors said. About six months after initially charging Silva with concealing Battaglia’s death, prosecutors upgraded the charges to allege he had actually killed her.
