Cook County prosecutors on Friday dropped an involuntary manslaughter charge against a 19-year-old man who briefly appeared before a judge in connection to the shooting death of a 17-year-old girl earlier this week.
The 19-year-old Austin man appeared before Judge Ankur Srivastava for a detention hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building on a Class 3 felony involuntary manslaughter charge. Prosecutors dropped the case against the man and he was released from custody, according to court records and his attorney, Joseph Lopez.
The Tribune is not releasing the man’s name as he is no longer charged.
The man was arrested soon after police found the body of Stephani Lopez-Ramirez in an apartment in the 700 block of North Avers Avenue in the Humboldt Park neighborhood about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. An autopsy the following day revealed that she died from a single gunshot wound through the arm into the chest and her death was ruled a homicide.
The arrest report states police said the 19-year-old told officers that Lopez-Ramirez shot herself, but authorities said the gunshot wound was not consistent with a self-inflicted wound.
Police also said the man gave conflicting accounts on who brought the firearm into the home. An eyewitness told police that he’d seen the 19-year-old with the same handgun before and he was the only person in the bedroom with the victim when she was shot.
According to the arrest report, Chief of Detectives Antoinette Ursitti approved the felony charge override immediately after the state’s attorney’s felony review office declined felony charges. Police only rarely file criminal charges without felony review, but the cases are often dropped in court without prosecutors’ support.
“After a thorough review of information presented to us by police, we concluded that the totality of the evidence was insufficient to meet our burden of proof to file criminal charges,” the state’s attorney’s office said in a statement.
“As prosecutors, we have both an ethical and legal obligation to make charging decisions based on the law and evidence. We are open to a further review if new or additional information is brought to us.”
Chicago police didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lopez, a veteran defense attorney, said the dropped case was unexpected beforehand, but celebrated the decision by prosecutors, calling Lopez-Ramirez’s death “a very tragic accident.” Lopez confirmed that further charges could be filed and that a grand jury could be convened, but pledged that he and his client were cooperative in the case.
Relatives for Lopez-Ramirez could not be reached for comment.
