COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — J.W. Moore died about a month after prosecutors said he was robbed at gunpoint, but the cause of death was not a gunshot wound.
Moore, 78, was standing in his yard in the 10200 block of South Bensley Avenue in the middle of the afternoon last December 10 when a young man with a handgun appeared and ordered him to "give up his money," Assistant State's Attorney Joe Crocker said Friday.
Dalvin Rayford, the man now charged in his murder, allegedly knocked Moore to the ground.
Crocker said Rayford stood over the man, continuing to demand money and fished the man's keys from his pocket before taking off.
He was swiftly arrested and charged with armed robbery, Crocker said. Moore soon realized he'd suffered a broken hip during the assault.
About one month later, on Jan. 12, Moore died of complications from the broken hip.
When he laid out the murder charges against Rayford during a brief bond hearing on Friday, Crocker did not explain why it's taken the state several months to upgrade the charges against him.
Rayford's attorney called the case "intrinsically strange."
"There may be a legal argument about the lateness of the charges," Assistant Public Defender Marijane Placek said.
Cook County Judge Israel Desierto ordered Rayford held on $750,000 bond.
He has been in jail on a $300,000 bond since last December when he was initially charged with armed robbery.
