Prosecutors said Tuesday that a Hammond teen, then 15, was responsible for a woman’s violent stabbing death.
Omarion Wilbourn, now 19, is accused of killing Lucia “Lucy” Gonzales, 25, on Aug. 22, 2017, in her apartment and stealing her cellphone, according to charging documents.
She was found on the kitchen floor by her 6-year-old daughter, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jessica Arnold said in opening statements. The girl took her two younger siblings, then aged 2 and 1, to a neighbor’s house, who called the police.
He was also charged with raping two other women that summer. He signed a plea agreement and was sentenced to 20 years for both last month, according to court records.
Wilbourn lived several blocks away from Gonzales in Hammond’s Hessville section, Arnold said. He was grounded for losing an iPhone and disappeared from the house, Arnold said. After Gonzales’ death, he jumped on his green bike and rode home, she said.
Once back, he rushed to take a shower. His stepmother noticed “stab wounds” and claimed he was attacked in Hessville Park. His dad took him to the hospital and the next day, his mom picked him up to go file a police report.
Defense lawyer John Maksimovich argued her blood was not found on him Wilbourn, nor his blood in her house, he said. Jurors would find it difficult to link a 15-year-old to a “gruesome” crime scene.
The trial is expected to last several days. It continues Wednesday.
Court documents filed against Wilbourn charged him with fatally stabbing Gonzales in her home in the 7500 block of Alexander Avenue. He was also charged with robbery resulting in serious bodily injury and theft in connection with her death.
When investigators arrived, they found that “blood was everywhere” at the scene, according to court records. While there were no signs of forced entry into the residence, police found there was “an apparent struggle,” court records state. Gonzales’ cellphone was also missing from the residence, court records show.
On Aug. 22, 2017, Wilbourn came to the Hammond Police Department and claimed that he had been stabbed the previous evening at Hessville Park by two high school students, court records show. Police noticed Wilbourn had cuts to his arm, knee, side, back and pinkie finger, according to court records.
The next day, police tracked Gonzales’ cellphone to the 1700 block of 171st Street, where officers found the phone under a pillow Wilbourn was sleeping on in the basement, court records show.
Investigators s said that Wilbourn left his home between 8:30 and 9 p.m. on Aug. 21, 2017, “without permission,” and when he returned “a short time later,” Wilbourn “immediately went into the bathroom to shower,” court records state.
While Wilbourn had been gone from the home, Wilbourn’s girlfriend helped look for him, according to court records.
Wilbourn had previously told the girlfriend that he had to “make a run,” which she thought meant he was going to buy marijuana, and had “something to do at 9 p.m. that evening,” court records state.
As they looked for Wilbourn, the girlfriend saw Wilbourn run away from Gonzales’ home toward a dead end near Interstate 80/94, before going back to retrieve his bicycle and ride away in an alley, court records show.
Police searched the area where Wilbourn was seen running and found a “large butcher knife with a brown handle” and a “thin metal crowbar,” according to court records.
