An Illinois judge on Sunday denied bail to a North Side man who allegedly admitted to throwing a woman from the fifth floor window of his apartment building in Chicago late last week.
Following his arrest Thursday morning, police body-worn camera footage captured Tyson Tillman having a telephone conversation where he allegedly told someone “I threw the bitch out the window,” prosecutors said during a bail hearing broadcast on YouTube.
Tillman, of the 4500 block of North Magnolia Avenue, faces first-degree murder charges related to the July 7 death of Tabitha Tanner, according to court records.
During the hearing, prosecutors said doorbell cameras from Tillman’s neighbors captured the separate arrivals of Tillman and Tanner at his Magnolia Avenue apartment Thursday evening after 10 p.m. Video captured the woman pacing in the hallway shortly before her nude body plummeted through Tillman’s window to the alley below, authorities said.
Tanner suffered a broken shinbone, facial trauma, abrasions and a laceration caused by the fall, and the death was ruled a homicide, authorities said. Police were also awaiting a sex assault kit performed on victim because she was found nude.
When investigators arrived at the scene minutes later, authorities said Tillman initially denied any knowledge of the fall, despite surveillance video capturing him exiting his building four minutes after the fatal fall and approaching the body, according to Assistant State’s Attorney James O’Connor. He then told police that the victim came to his apartment and that her clothing came off during a quarrel just before she plunged from the apartment window, O’Connor said.
It was after Tillman was brought to the police station that he allegedly made the incriminating statement during the phone call.
Tillman’s court-appointed attorney asked Judge Mary C. Marubio to rule against the request to deny bail countering that it was still too soon to know if Tanner’s death was intentional or accidental and that there was insufficient evidence to prove either way. A high school graduate with a child on the way, Tillman had about eight felony convictions, most being drug related, court records showed.
Noting the weight of the evidence, the violence and “callous manner” of Tanner’s death, Marubio approved the petition denying Tillman’s bail but approved his medical treatment for mental health diagnoses noted by his defense attorney.
He is expected to return to court on Wednesday.
Tell us your thoughts...