Man charged as Irish student remains critical

AS a young Irish student continues to fight for her life in a US hospital, a man appeared in Cook County Criminal Court yesterday charged with aggravated battery and armed robbery.

Heriberto Viramontes, 31, was refused bail during his brief court appearance.

Chicago police traced Viramontes and his girlfriend, 25-year-old Marcy Cruz, through surveillance video, mobile phone records and credit card information.

Natasha McShane, 23, who is from Co Armagh and was studying in Chicago, was mugged while walking home with an American friend in the early hours of Friday morning last.

She is in a critical but stable condition in Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and her parents have travelled to the US to be with their daughter.

Judge Adam Bourgeois said of Viramontes: “I don’t think there’s any condition or set of conditions that I can impose that can protect the community from this individual.”

Viramontes, a reputed street gang member with a string of convictions, including for violence, is accusing of running up behind the two women and forcefully swinging the wooden bat across their heads before stealing their purses.

But his Facebook page reveals a different person, with pictures of him smiling and postings on how much he is enjoying a beautiful day, how much he loves his family, including “my beautiful sister”, a young woman not much older than the two who remain in hospital.

Cruz is accused of driving Viramontes to the scene of the attack in Bucktown on the northside of Chicago, waiting, then picking him up. She is expected to make her court appearance today.

Eighteen minutes after the attack, a surveillance camera caught Cruz buying petrol at a nearby filling station with one of the injured women’s credit cards, according to police.

Further details emerged yesterday about how the two young women out celebrating – Natasha after hearing she would be able to remain in Chicago, Stacy Jurich after an excellent job review at a financial firm – ended up the victims of a random and senseless few seconds of violence. As the pair walked from the trendy Wicker Park district to Stacy’s apartment in nearby Bucktown, Viramontes was at Cruz’s apartment and apparently determined to rob someone, anyone, according to police.

Cruz drove the van that took the couple from the apartment south to Bucktown, just as the two girls were walking north.

The attack took place under a dark railway bridge. Stacy was struck first, then Natasha, who is barely over five feet tall, was hit at least twice, possibly three times, across the head.

As Natasha lay unconscious and in a pool of blood, her friend went to help her and was hit again by the attacker.

Although Stacy was able to remain conscious long enough to scream for help, one taxi driver slowed but drove on after spotting the blood.

A second cab driver called 911.

Ms McShane, who completed her primary degree at Queen’s University in Belfast before enrolling in an MA in urban and regional planning at UCD, had recently finished her studies at the University of Illinois in Chicago and has secured an internship in the US.