A Logan Square man was sentenced to 50 years in prison Friday for murdering his girlfriend and stuffing her body inside a duffel bag that sat in his bedroom for days before police found her remains during a well-being check.
Genesis Silva, 37, was convicted by a jury earlier this year in the June 2023 death of Brittany Battaglia. Silva’s attorneys argued at trial that he hid Battaglia’s body after she died because he feared he would be blamed 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 before heading to a party. When she didn’t return, the roommate and the roommate’s boyfriend each filed missing person reports.
According to prosecutors, Chicago police detectives began staking out Silva’s home after a friend of his called 911 and told dispatchers he had grown “concerned” about Silva following a lunch the two shared that day.
Detectives spotted Silva leaving the house and stopped him. He then walked them back to his apartment in the 2000 block of North Kimball Avenue, a red and black backpack draped over his shoulder, prosecutors said.
Inside his bedroom, detectives found Battaglia’s body stuffed inside a large duffel bag, according to prosecutors. The Cook County Medical Examiner ruled her death a homicide caused by multiple sharp force wounds. Prosecutors said she had been nearly decapitated.
The backpack Silva was carrying when police approached him allegedly contained a machete. A second machete was later found in his car, prosecutors said. Both the machete from the backpack and the bag containing Battaglia’s remains tested positive for blood.
In Silva’s kitchen, investigators said they found two garbage bags near a tarp containing shoes, a bucket, a paint suit, gloves, bleach and a Swiffer. Prosecutors said police also recovered three handwritten lists of items, including cleaning supplies, chemicals and boots, along with a note that allegedly read: “Can you ask average time until smell, etc?”
Silva’s past surfaced prominently during the case. He was charged with attempted murder and sexual assault of his wife in 2009, prosecutors said. According to the allegations, the couple argued after returning home from a party, and Silva strangled her, repeatedly asking, “Why won’t you just die?” That case was ultimately 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 Silva’s initial bail hearing in the Battaglia case, his 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 at the time.
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.
Judge Mary Brosnahan oversaw the case and handed down the sentence. Silva must serve 100% of his 50-year term under state law.
