March 17--A Cook County judge convicted a man Monday of the 2010 stabbing deaths of his teenage girlfriend, her mother and her 11-year-old sister.
Denzel Pittman, 22, shook his head, looked down and rubbed his hands on his pant legs as Judge Timothy Joyce found him guilty of what he called the "senseless murders of three defenseless women."
Pittman's girlfriend, Jade Hannah, 17, her sister Joi Cochran and their mother, Stacy Cochran-Hill, 43, were killed inside their South Side apartment building. Prosecutors said Pittman acted in a jealous rage after learning Jade was seeing someone else.
The judge said the evidence of Pittman's guilt was overwhelming. Blood from all three victims was found on his pants, and witnesses testified they saw him leave the apartment building at about the time of the murders. He also made statements implicating himself to police and a cellmate.
The crime scene was so horrific that a Chicago police lieutenant who discovered two of the bodies inside the apartment broke down on the witness stand, prosecutors said.
"This poor mom on crutches was trying to protect her children," Assistant State's Attorney Melissa Meana said during closing arguments about Cochran-Hill, who had undergone recent foot surgery. "She was trying to prevent the massacre of her family. She was trying to keep evil from entering her apartment."
More than two dozen friends and relatives of the victims attended the bench trial at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
"I feel good -- justice has been served. I don't ever want him to touch that concrete out there again," Cochran-Hill's mother, Sharon Raney, said of Pittman ever being freed.
Indeed, Pittman faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. No sentencing date was set.
Pittman raised his arm and loudly spoke to his family as he was led away by deputies.
"Don't worry," he said. "I'm going to get out."
sschmadeke@tribpub.com
