Parta Huff is flanked by two Chicago police officers during his arrest, seen in Chicago Police dashboard camera video. The officer at left is Veronica Murillo, injured moments later. (Chicago Police Department)
A man convicted in a 2016 beating that left a Chicago police officer with traumatic brain damage and other severe injuries was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday.
With expected credit for time in custody awaiting trial and credit for good behavior, Parta Huff would be released from custody in about five years.
In handing down the sentence, Judge James Obbish said Officer Veronica Murillo’s injuries were among the very worst he has seen in decades of experience with the criminal justice system. Huff was sentenced to 15 years for Murillo’s assault and five years for attacking her partner, who sustained less serious injuries.
At a bench trial earlier this year, Obbish acquitted Huff of attempted murder charges, finding that prosecutors had not sufficiently proven that Huff intended to kill the officer. Huff instead was found guilty of aggravated battery and resisting arrest, which carry far shorter prison terms.
Murillo’s beating in October 2016 made headlines not simply because of its severity, but because of then-Superintendent Eddie Johnson’s claim that the officer did not shoot Huff because she wanted to avoid a media spotlight on her family and the department at a time when police were under heavy scrutiny for shootings.
Warning: Graphic language and content. Police release dashboard camera video of officer beating that drew top cop's attention. (Video provided by Chicago Police Department)
At sentencing Thursday, Obbish commended all the officers responding to the scene for refraining from deadly force: “In a chaotic situation, trying to save one of their own, they didn’t resort to that,” he said from the bench.
“No one would have been better off. The officer who might have done it wouldn’t have saved anybody from what occurred — it would have been too late,” he continued. “I hope none of the officers feel they are somehow responsible for what occurred to Officer Murillo. … Mr. Huff is the one responsible. Please also continue to engage appropriately (in a) dangerous job where you don’t know what might be coming in the next nanosecond.”
Officers encountered Huff in October 2016, after he drove a car into the front of a liquor store at Roosevelt Road and Cicero Avenue, then walked away, according to testimony at trial. He was on PCP; and earlier that day, he had been in court for a case from a few months earlier in which he was accused of injuring a Forest Park police officer.
After a passerby flagged down Murillo and her partner to tell them about the liquor store, nearby sheriff’s police officers pointed out Huff as the driver.
The officers told Huff to stop, which he did not, and when Murillo attempted to handcuff him, he got aggressive, she testified at trial. She got one of his wrists in a cuff, but he pulled away and the struggle over the cuffs grew violent.
An image from a police officer body camera shows Parta Huff, left, holding onto Officer Veronica Murillo's hair while struggling with other officers. Authorities said Murillo suffered a concussion, bone chips to the shoulder, and wrist and a neck injury after Huff repeatedly slammed her head onto concrete pavement and pulled chunks of hair from her head. (Chicago Police Department)
Huff punched her, knocked her to the ground, wrapped her hair around his hands and smashed her head into the pavement over and over, she testified.
Her partner used his Taser and pepper spray on Huff, to no apparent effect, according to testimony at trial.
Much of the encounter was captured on dashboard camera.
Murillo was in the hospital for more than a month. She was placed on permanent disability. Her doctor testified in November that the injuries were similar to those from a car wreck, and that he has seen people die from “a lot less.”
Huff’s defense had argued in part that he had taken so much PCP that he was, effectively, not in control of his own actions, and hence was not in a state of mind to form an intent to kill or injure. Meanwhile, Huff himself was under attack by the many police officers who responded, they argued.
“There’s not one iota of evidence in this whole case that he came and had any intent of hurting Officer Murillo. Never. Not from the beginning. He just was caught up in this scrum. We saw it. He was beat to a pulp,” defense attorney William Murphy said in closing arguments.
An Chicago police officer uses his taser on Parta Huff during his arrest on Oct. 14, 2016. (Chicago Police Department)
At trial and at sentencing, Obbish rejected the claim that Huff was in any way a victim.
But there was not sufficient proof to show he intended to kill Murillo, which prosecutors must prove for the attempted murder charge, he said.
That’s a higher bar to clear even than for a first-degree murder charge, Obbish said, which requires either intent to kill or simply a knowledge that a defendant’s actions created a “strong probability” of death or serious injury.
“It is far easier to convict someone of murder than it is to convict somebody of attempted first-degree murder. … Murder doesn’t require only intent,” he said at the conclusion of the trial in April. “I don’t believe that the state has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant’s actions amounted to the intent to kill. I hope I’ve explained myself so that people understand that. If this officer had died, the actions would support probably a conviction for murder. Thank God she did not die.”
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
Chicago police lieutenant facing criminal charges for allegedly shoving flashlight between teen’s buttocks during arrest in February
7m
Man convicted of beating two Chicago cops in 2016 is sentenced to 20 years in prison
53m
Breaking News Texas abortion law: Here are 4 things to know about how it might impact Illinois
2h
Real Estate Property values are climbing, but home equity loans are no longer in vogue. Here’s why.
7:03 AM
COVID-19 Vaccine Reports of abnormal periods after COVID-19 vaccinations prompt NIH to award funding to study potential link
5:00 AM