May 27--A Chicago man was ordered held in lieu of $1 million bail Friday after being charged with luring a 41-year-old woman out of her Back of the Yards home and being one of several people who beat her to death, prosecutors said.
Eddie Howlett, 24, is charged with first-degree murder and appeared before Judge James Brown at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
According to prosecutors, at about 8 p.m. on April 21, Howlett texted Kimberly Schnackenburg and informed her that he had drugs that he wanted her to try.
After texting the victim, Howlett, of the 7900 block of South Laflin Street, then went to Schnackenburg's apartment in the 2000 block of West 51st Street with at least three other men, prosecutors said.
As Howlett went up to the woman's apartment the other men hid in an alley next to the victim's apartment building. After Howlett and the victim walked out of the apartment building Howlett punched the woman, causing her to fall onto the ground.
After the woman fell, the other men began kicking her and one of the men used a baseball bat to hit her several times in the head and body, prosecutors said.
After the attack, Howlett and the men fled, leaving the woman on the ground in the alley.
After six hours someone found the woman's body lying in a pool of blood. The woman was taken to Holy Cross Hospital where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy determined that the woman died of craniocerebral injuries from multiple impacts to her head. The death was ruled a homicide.
Police recovered surveillance video from a nearby home which showed Howlett and the men arriving at the apartment. Howlett is seen going into the apartment building and then going outside, accompanied by the woman and leading her to the ambush.
The video showed Howlett hitting the woman to the ground and then the others kicking and hitting the woman with a baseball bat.
Several others identified Howlett in the video, and the victim's roommate identified Howlett as the person who picked the woman up at the apartment.
After an alert was issued in the investigation. Howlett was arrested May 24, prosecutors said.
During a videotaped interview with police, Howlett admitted that he texted the woman a short time before the fatal beating.
