COOK COUNTY, IL – Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced today that Solicitation of Murder for Hire and Murder for Hire charges, both felonies, have been approved against Cook County Jail inmate Brian Thurman, 28, of Melrose Park. These charges follow an investigation into allegations that Thurman was seeking to have the victim and her family in his pending predatory criminal sexual assault charges killed.
Brian Thurman (Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department photo).
On January 13, 2013, Thurman was charged with predatory criminal sexual assault after Sheriff’s Police investigated allegations that Thurman sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl at a motel in unincorporated Leyden Township. Bond was set at $480,000 and Thurman remains in custody at the Cook County Jail.
On January 29, 2013 Sheriff’s Police initiated an investigation after Thurman requested the assistance of another inmate and known gang member to hire someone to murder the victim and her family.
On January 30, 2013 Thurman was provided a telephone number, which he believed was number of a hitman. The hitman was in fact an undercover Cook County Sheriff’s investigator. Thurman contacted the hitman and told him he needed three individuals killed. Thurman offered to give the hitman his car and $8,000 upon his release from jail.
On February 4th Thurman was visited in the Cook County Jail by the alleged hitman. During the visit Thurman solicited the murder of his alleged 11-year-old victim, her 16-year-old sister and their mother “as soon as possible.” Thurman told the hitman where he could pick up his Mercury Mountaineer vehicle and again promised to pay him $8,000 dollars upon his release from custody.
Thurman has been charged with 3 counts of Murder for Hire and 3 counts of Solicitation of Murder for Hire, both Class X felonies.
Thurman is expected to appear in Bond Court tomorrow, February 10th at the Cook County Criminal Court Building.
During this investigation Sheriff’s detectives learned that Thurman has associated with young girls before and that young girls had been seen around his Leyden Township motel room. Thurman has been known to frequent Chicago’s Northwest side and the Mannheim Road area. Sheriff’s police ask anyone with information to call Cook County Sheriff’s Detective Unit at 708-865-4896.
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