Gay Man Beaten and Killed Following Grindr Meeting
Prosecutors say the suspects made $4,000 worth of online purchases and attempted to use the victim's cards to withdraw money.
Two men face murder charges for allegedly gagging, beating, and killing a man they met on the gay dating app Grindr.
George Levin, of Chicago, was found tied up in his home on Sunday, January 26. He had been bound with duct tape and electrical cords and gagged with a sock in his mouth, reported the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Chicago Police Department identified two suspects — Geiderwuin Bello Morales, 21, an Ecuadorian national, and Jefferson Ubilla-Delgado, 29, a Venezuelan national — and charged them with one felony count of first-degree murder and one felony count of robbery against a victim over 60 years old.
During a February 1 court appearance, prosecutors alleged that Morales and Ubilla-Delgado had met Levin through Grindr and had gone to his apartment under the guise of a sexual encounter before setting upon, beating, and restraining the 63-year-old.
Both men are undocumented migrants in the country illegally, according to sources familiar with the case. Prosecutors noted that Morales was wearing a Department of Homeland Security GPS monitoring device on his ankle at the time of the murder, according to Chicago NBC affiliate WMAQ.
Levin’s sister found him late Sunday night in the basement apartment of the home they shared with their mother. Levin had dinner with his mother and sister earlier that night before excusing himself to return to his apartment around 8 p.m.
About half an hour later, Levin’s sister heard a loud noise from the basement, and when she walked downstairs to check on him, she ran into Morales leaving her brother’s bedroom. When she asked him where Levin was and if he was okay, Morales assured her that her brother was fine and he would have him call her later.
Levin’s sister told investigators she attempted to call and text her brother, only to receive a message from his phone, brushing her off.
A short time later, surveillance video captured Morales and Ubilla-Delgado leaving Levin’s apartment.
At around 11 p.m., Levin’s sister came to check on him again but found the door locked. She broke into the apartment and discovered her brother tied up, his hands bound with duct tape and an electrical cord tied around his feet, with a sock stuffed in his mouth and secured with duct tape. He had been badly beaten and was partially undressed, and was “cold to the touch,” as prosecutors would later reveal in court documents.
Levin’s sister performed CPR while waiting for paramedics to arrive. He was taken to Ascension Resurrection Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office deemed the death a homicide. Prosecutors said he suffered a hemorrhage to the neck, a subdural hemorrhage to the head, and fractured ribs, reports WBBM.
When they arrived at the apartment to investigate, police later discovered that Levin’s phone and wallet were missing. The dating app on Levin’s iPad, which police recovered at the scene of the murder, had its message history cleared to four days before the killing.
According to prosecutors, Morales and Ubilla-Delgado attempted to use Levin’s credit cards and phone to make purchases at a vape shop and gas station and made four Amazon purchases totaling over $4,000 using his phone — which caused his Bank of America account to lock. They also attempted to withdraw money from his bank account at an ATM.
Police tracked the suspects back to a Norwood Park apartment using data and GPS signals from Levin’s phone. They were able to use surveillance video footage from near the apartment — including a shot of Morales holding a roll of duct tape when leaving to head to Levin’s home — and from the gas station and the vape shop, as well as data from the GPS monitoring device on Morales, to connect the two men to Levin’s murder.
Levin’s sister identified Morales in a lineup, and Ubilla-Delgado admitted to going to Levin’s apartment when he was arrested on January 29.
Ubilla-Delgado allegedly told police that he had met Levin on the Grindr app and arranged to meet in person to have sex in exchange for Levin’s cell phone as payment. He told them that he and Morales tied Levin up and slapped and beat him because that’s what he wanted. But investigators found no evidence to support Delgado’s claims, as the messages on Levin’s Grindr account had been deleted.
Morales was previously arrested on January 12, when he was charged with a misdemeanor count of assault for allegedly “gesturing toward” a 12-year-old girl to lure her into his car. He is slated to appear in court on February 25 regarding those charges.
During their initial court appearance, lawyers for the men argued that Levin’s death was an “unfortunate accident” that occurred as part of a sexual tryst. But Cook County Associate Judge William Fahy, of the Fifth Municipal District, rejected the arguments, calling what happened “much more than sheer tragic.”
Fahy ordered both men to be detained without bail until trial.
“I can’t overlook the horrifying nature of this crime,” Fahy said. “To call this a violent crime is an understatement.”
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