CHICAGO — After two men left 63-year-old George Levin bound, gagged, and either dead or dying in his Norwood Park bedroom last weekend, they went on an Amazon shopping spree, buying merchandise worth more than $4,000 as they fled the scene, prosecutors said during a detention hearing Saturday. At the end of the hearing, Jefferson Ubilla-Delgado, 29, and his 21-year-old roommate, Geiderwuin Bello Morales, were ordered held in custody by Judge William Fahy.
Ubilla was wearing an immigration ankle monitor at the time of the murder, and its GPS history helped investigators link him to the crime, prosecutors said in a proffer provided by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
According to allegations made in the state’s proffer:
- Levin, his older sister, and their mother had dinner in their home in the 7600 block of West Talcott last Sunday. Levin excused himself around 8 p.m. and went to his basement apartment.
- Surveillance video showed Ubilla and Bello leaving their apartment building around 8:05 p.m. Bello had a roll of duct tape.
- The men arrived outside Levin’s home in Ubilla’s Lexus about seven minutes later and walked toward his home.
- Levin’s sister heard loud noises in the basement around 8:30 p.m. and went downstairs to check on him.
- In the basement, she saw Bello and asked where her brother was. He replied that her brother was OK and that he would have him call her.
- Video shows Ubilla and Bello leaving in the Lexus about 12 minutes later.
- For the next two hours, Levin’s sister called him without getting an answer. However, she received replies to text messages that brushed her off. The messages were sent after Ubilla and Bello left the Levin’s home.
- Around 10:48 p.m., Levin’s sister found the door to the basement locked and then discovered her brother’s bedroom door locked. She broke the door to get inside.
- Levin was on his bedroom floor, cold to the touch, hands bound together with duct tape, a sock stuffed in his mouth and secured with duct tape. She called 911, removed the tape and sock, and administered CPR until first responders arrived. His phone and wallet were missing.
- Levin had broken ribs and his body displayed hemorrhaging in the neck and head. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide from multiple injuries suffered in an assault, but the office could not rule out asphyxiation.
- Chicago police detectives secured emergency access to Levin’s phone data and used it to track the movements of the Lexus after the murder. They located surveillance video along the way that showed Ubilla’s car, Levin’s phone, and Ubilla’s ankle monitor moving together along the city streets.
- Video showed Bello in a gas station on Montrose Avenue with Levin’s phone as he tried to withdraw money using Levin’s credit cards.
- Levin’s sister identified Bello in a lineup as the person she encountered in the basement.
- Police arrested Ubilla on Wednesday. He told them he and Bello arranged via the Grindr dating app to go to Levin’s home to have sex and received Levin’s phone as payment.
- Ubilla claimed they tied Levin up and slapped and beat him because that’s what he wanted. He also claimed that Levin closed and locked the door himself.
- All of Levin’s Grindr communications since January 2 were deleted.
- A review of Levin’s Grindr history and histories on other apps showed no previous offers to have sex for money and no evidence he “identified as submissive or requested rough/violent sexual interactions with other users.”
- On Thursday, while the men’s roommate was speaking with police, Bello began communicating with him by phone and revealed that he planned to go to Wisconsin. With the roommate’s permission, CPD intercepted the messages and used them to locate Bello.
- When police arrested Bello, his phone was factory reset, and all data was erased. He invoked his right to remain silent.
Bello and Ubilla are each charged with first-degree murder and robbery of a victim older than 60.
On January 12, Bello and Ubilla were sitting in a car near their home when a witness called 911 to report that someone in the vehicle was trying to lure girls into the car. Police eventually arrested Bello, who was charged with misdemeanor assault of a 13-year-old girl after prosecutors and police supervisors opted not to pursue felony child luring charges, according to CPD records.
Without identifying Bello and Ubilla by name, Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) revealed this week that the two men authorities believed were responsible for Levin’s death were “undocumented immigrants, one from Ecuador, one from Venezuela.”
Matt Finn of Fox News reported that Ubilla and Bello crossed the U.S. at the Texas border in the summer of 2023. Ubilla is from Ecuador, and Bello is Venezuelan. Ubilla crossed at Eagle Pass on August 30, 2023, and Bello entered at Brownsville on July 24, 2023, according to a source with knowledge of the details.
