A parolee charged with killing a University of Illinois at Chicago honor student spotted her as she walked alone past a CTA Blue Line stop on campus early Saturday morning and grew angered when she ignored his repeated attempts to talk, Cook County prosecutors alleged Tuesday.
As Ruth George reached her car in a UIC parking garage, prosecutors said, Donald Thurman grabbed her around the neck from behind and put her in a chokehold. With his arm still wrapped around her neck, Thurman dragged an unconscious George to her car and threw her in the back seat, where he sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.
At a bond hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said surveillance cameras captured Thurman following George into the parking garage. The two did not know each other, he said.
Investigators recovered a palm print from George’s car that matched Thurman and seized from Thurman’s home a distinctive white jacket he was seen wearing in the video, Murphy said.
Thurman confessed to physically attacking and sexually assaulting George, though he denied having intercourse with her, according to the prosecutor.
Police also found a discarded condom in George’s car.
Judge Charles Beach II ordered that Thurman be held in custody without bail. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder and criminal sexual assault.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office has ruled that George, 19, died from strangulation.
In a statement released Tuesday morning, George’s mother, who asked not to be named, offered a brief but aching remembrance of her daughter, a UIC sophomore.
“Ruth lived out her deep faith in Jesus by loving and serving others, leaving a legacy of Christ-centered kindness and sacrifice,” the statement said. “She was the beloved baby of our family. We grieve with hope. We hold no hatred towards the perpetrator, but our hope is no other girl would be harmed in this way and for a mother to never experience this type of heartache.”
Friends remembered George, a 2018 graduate of Naperville Central High School, as a personable and dynamic young woman who had a kind word for everyone. She competed on the school’s gymnastics team.
George’s family grew worried when she didn’t return to the family’s west suburban Berwyn home, reporting her missing around 11 a.m. Saturday, police and prosecutors said. George’s sisters reached out to her friends and learned that her cellphone could be tracked to the UIC parking garage at Taylor and Halsted streets.
The sisters asked that UIC police accompany them to the scene — and they discovered George’s body in the back seat of the family’s white Kia.
Even though prosecutors said her body was cold to the touch, George’s sisters attempted to resuscitate her until paramedics arrived on the scene and pronounced her dead.
At the time of the killing, Thurman, 26, was still on parole for a robbery conviction from 2016 for snatching an iPhone from a woman’s hands before fleeing in a stolen car, court records show. He was sentenced in August 2016 to six years in state prison but released in December 2018 after serving a little more than two years. He had been given credit for spending an additional seven months in custody while awaiting trial, according to the records.
Thurman’s court-appointed attorney, Assistant Public Defender Valerie Panozzo, said in court Tuesday that Thurman has a history of mental health issues. The high school graduate has worked as a dishwasher and at the city’s animal shelter since his parole, she said, but he was homeless, “bouncing from place to place.”
Panozzo asked that Thurman be kept in protective custody at Cook County Jail because of death threats he has received.
Prosecutors said George had attended a semi-formal event Friday night for a professional fraternity for students working on medical-related degrees. UIC officials said George was studying kinesiology with plans to become a physical therapist.
She and a friend took a ride-share back to campus, arriving shortly before 1:30 a.m. Saturday. The friend went to her dorm room, while George walked alone to the parking garage.
As George walked by the Blue Line stop near Halsted and Harrison streets, Thurman noticed her, prosecutors said.
Thurman “thought she was pretty and tried talking to her, but the victim ignored him,” Murphy said in court.
George kept walking while Thurman continued to follow her and attempted to talk to her, even “catcalling” her, the prosecutor said.
Thurman grew “angry he was being ignored,” Murphy said.
He followed George into the parking garage and put her in the chokehold. Both tumbled to the floor, Murphy said. His arm still wrapped around her neck, Thurman dragged George along the floor of the garage and threw her into the car, the prosecutor said.
Police found “drag marks” from George’s shoes and fingers on the scene, Murphy said.
Both private and CTA surveillance cameras captured Thurman, clad in the distinctive white jacket, leaving the Blue Line stop, following George down Taylor Street and into the parking garage, according to Murphy.
About 35 minutes later, the video caught him running alone from the garage and then making his way through the UIC campus, the prosecutor said.
Able to identify Thurman by his face from the surveillance videos, UIC police staked out the CTA Blue Line, believing he might return to that area of the campus, UIC police Chief Kevin Booker said. About 2 a.m. Sunday, UIC detectives took Thurman into custody in the 700 block of South Halsted Street, just down the street from the parking garage, according to a police report.
By Sunday afternoon, he had confessed in a videotaped statement to police that he choked George from behind and threw her in the car while she was unconscious, Murphy said. He admitted to having sexual contact with her but denied having intercourse, though he said “he knew that his DNA would be all over the scene,” according to Murphy.
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
