Facebook Live Torture Case: Bail Set For All 4 Defendants

CHICAGO, IL — The four defendants accused of tying up and tormenting a mentally challenged Crystal Lake man and posting videos of it on Facebook all have been granted bail after a judge originally orded them held without bond following their arrests earlier this year. On Tuesday, Cook County Judge William Hooks set bail for Jordan Hill, 18, at $900,000, the highest amount among those charged in the case, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

SIGN UP: Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Chicago — or your neighborhood. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.

Hooks cited the fact that Hill allegedly set in motion the brutal events of January by picking up the victim in a stolen van on New Year's Eve and spending the next two days driving around the West Side before ending up Jan. 3 at an apartment in the 3300 block of West Lexington Avenue belonging to sisters Brittany and Tanishia Covington, two other defendants in the case. The judge also accused Hill of using his past relationship with the victim as fellow classmates at an Aurora school to gain his trust, the report added.

"He took the lead in [getting] the victim to trust him, and that trust is how we got to this point," Hooks said, according to the Sun-Times.

If Hill is able to post bail, he will be required to wear an electronic monitoring device and will be prohibited from using the internet, the Sun-Times reports. Although bail has been set for all four defendants, none of them have been able to post the required amounts needed to be released from Cook County Jail. The following are the bail amounts for the other individuals charged in the case:

• Tesfaye Cooper, 18: $800,000
• Brittany Covington, 18: $500,000
• Tanishia Covington, 24: $200,000

The suspects are accused of binding the 18-year-old victim with duct tape and tormenting him for hours in a West Side apartment in early January. While captive, the victim also had his clothes and hair cut and was forced to walk on all fours and drink water from a toilet bowl. Shouts of "F--- Donald Trump" and "F--- white people" can be heard in the video of the incident, which originally was posted online to Facebook Live.

More Patch Coverage:

• Facebook Live Torture Case: Judge Wants Public Defender To Check For Conflicts Of Interest
• Facebook Live Torture Case Defendants Plead Not Guilty
• Cameras Banned for Hearings in Facebook Live Torture Case
• GoFundMe Samaritan Wants Facbook Video Victim to Know Good People Are Out There
• Chicago Torture-Kidnap Case: Disgust Over Attack, Support for Victim, Cause for Conservatives
• Bail Denied in Facebook Live Torture Case: 'Where Is Your Sense of Decency?'
• Victim's Brother-in-Law Says Family Trying to Stick Together After Ordeal
• 4 Arrested in Binding, Torturing of Mentally Challenged Man: Police

The defendants are charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Hill, Cooper and Brittany Covington also are charged with residential burglary, and Hill faces additional robbery and possession of a stolen motor vehicle charges. The suspects all pleaded not guilty Feb. 10.

More via the Chicago Sun-Times

The four suspects — Brittany Covington (top left), Jordan Hill (top right), Tanishia Covington and Tesfaye Cooper — charged and accused of kidnapping and tormenting a mentally disabled white man. (photos via Chicago Police Department)

Like What You're Reading? Stay Patched In!

• Like our Crime page on Facebook
• Check out the Events Calendar for what’s going on