COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — Prosecutors laid out a sordid tale of jealousy, ambush, murder and dismemberment on Sunday, accusing a 19-year-old woman of stripping for her children's uncle as a ruse to set him up for murder.
As she undressed for her prey in her bedroom, Daisy Gutierrez's new boyfriend kicked in the door, burst into the room and decapitated the man, prosecutors said in court Sunday.
Gutierrez, now three months pregnant, then enlisted her 56-year-old father to dig a grave in his backyard and bury the body, prosecutors said.
The grisly tale had their Southwest Side neighborhood buzzing over the weekend. News helicopters circled overhead as authorities dug up the grave and found the dismembered body of Jose Reyes, 29.
Prosecutors allege Daisy Gutierrez's new boyfriend was jealous that the uncle had showed affection for Gutierrez, leading to the May 21 ambush in her Southwest Side bedroom.
She and her boyfriend — who is on the loose and has not yet been charged — cut up Reyes' body, put it in bags and buried it in their former backyard in the 8300 block of South Scottsdale Avenue, prosecutors said.
The dismembered body was found over the weekend in the backyard grave, and Gutierrez and her father, Salvador Gutierrez, were charged.
Daisy Gutierrez was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Reyes, of the 1400 block of North Harding Avenue.
Salvador Gutierrez, 56, of the 8300 block of South Scottsdale Avenue, was charged with concealing the homicide. He allegedly dug the grave.
Prosecutors said Daisy Gutierrez had children with Reyes’ brother, and that her new boyfriend was upset that Reyes was affectionate toward his girlfriend.
So Daisy Gutierrez and the boyfriend lured Reyes to her home on May 21, prosecutors said. Assistant State’s Attorney Heather Kent said Daisy Gutierrez and Reyes went to her bedroom, where she began undressing. Her boyfriend then kicked in the door, attacking Reyes with pipe and a knife, slitting his throat and decapitating him.
After Reyes was dead, Gutierrez told her father she had "fixed the problem," prosecutors said.
When Salvador Gutierrez returned to the home he shared with his daughter, she and her boyfriend persuaded him to help them dispose of Reyes’ body. Kent said Salvador Gutierrez watched as the boyfriend dismembered Reyes body.
Salvador Gutierrez then spent three hours digging the grave in the back yard, and helped put Reyes’ remains in plastic bags, Kent said.
The next day, Kent said, Daisy Gutierrez and her boyfriend fled to New Jersey. Gutierrez told authorities after her arrest Friday that she is three months pregnant, according to an arrest report.
Prosecutors said both Daisy and Salvador Gutierrez confessed to their roles in Reyes’ death. Cook County Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil ordered Daisy Gutierrez held on $2 million bond, and her father held on $500,000 bond.
Authorities spent most of Friday digging in the yard of the house on Scottsdale Avenue. On Saturday, more bones were found inside the home, authorities said, but an autopsy determined they were nonhuman.
Rumors swirled around the neighborhood about the murder.
Kayla Taylor, 17, who stood with her mother and younger sister behind yellow police crime scene tape, said she lived a couple of doors from the house where police found the body.
She could not believe something so grisly could happen so close to home, Kayla said.
"I think it's crazy because they said it happened about five months ago, so we've been living here the last five months and didn't even know," she said.
Dave Weller, 56, lives across the street from the home where Reyes’ remains were found. He described the weekend’s scene as a “party,” saying neighbors joined him on his front porch for pizza and beer as the scene unfolded on the normally quiet block.
But the festive scene was disrupted by the smell emanating from the Gutierrez home.
"I can't even think of what it smelled like. It was just terrible. It was so bad the people next door left," Weller said.
On Saturday, investigators returned, removing sections of the house.
Weller said Salvador Gutierrez lived across the street for less than two years with a woman and a 13-year-old who went to school with his son. He described Gutierrez as a "quiet man and a loner.”
"He stayed to himself and you very rarely saw them, just back and forth to work," Weller said. "I never really seen much of them."
CONTRIBUTING: Quinn Ford
