“Jurich and the Natasha McShane had known each other only four months but become close friends,” chicagotribune.com reports. “The night of the attack they had been out celebrating their recent accomplishments — McShane had landed an internship that would allow her to extend her stay in Chicago and Jurich had closed a deal at the financial services firm where she worked. The two had left a popular bar at about 3 a .m. on April 23, 2010, and had begun walking to Jurich’s duplex in the Bucktown neighborhood . . .
They were halfway through a lit viaduct in the 1800 block of North Damen Avenue when Jurich was hit from behind without warning with a wooden Rawlings baseball bat. Viramontes then struck McShane, a petite woman less than 5 feet tall, who fell limp to the sidewalk . . .
“I wish the sounds of the bat breaking my head open would go away, but they won’t,” she said. “He took from us our freedom to walk down a street and enjoy the sunshine without fear.”
Now 28, Jurich [above] said she still suffers from seizures, cannot drive or ride a bike and has lost her job due to the aftereffects of the attack. Her fiance accompanied her to court, consoling her as the sentence was handed down.
McShane’s injuries were more severe. She requires constant care and is a shell of her former lively self. Now 27, she needs a team of 10 caregivers to assist her around the clock. She attends physical therapy five days a week and cannot walk outside her home unassisted.
Heriberto Viramontes is the man – if that’s the right word – who inflicted these injuries on two innocent people to steal their handbags.
On Thursday, Viramontes’ mother, two sisters and a niece tearfully testified at the sentencing hearing about the good he had done in life and pleaded with the judge for mercy. They noted that he was only a year old when his father was murdered.
I don’t know about you but I’d have a hard time pleading for mercy for my child if he’d inflicted so much pain and suffering on others for no good reason. Anyway, a judge sentenced him to 120 years in prison, 77 of which he’ll have to serve before he has a chance of parole.
[h/t ML]