Two teens and a man were charged this week in connection with the beating death of a man whose body was found in a garbage can near a Safe Passage route on Monday, the first day of classes for Chicago Public Schools students.
The two teens, Sokito Taylor, 16, and Deshawn Martin, 17, were each held on $1 million bond during a court appearance Thursday.
The man, 28-year-old Bryan Perkins, was also charged but did not appear for a bond hearing with the other two at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse.
Prosecutors allege Perkins beat the victim, 51-year-old Ernest Pritchett III, over the head with a fence slat over an issue of unpaid money. The two teens joined in the attack, on the 5900 block of South Emerald Avenue, prosecutors said.
The trio then stuffed Pritchett's body into a garbage can and rolled it a few blocks away, to an alley on the 700 block of West 61st Street, where it was found by crews from Chicago's Department of Streets and Sanitation at about 10 a.m. Monday, prosecutors said.
Nicholson Technology Academy is about four blocks away, at 6006 S. Peoria St.
All three were charged with first-degree murder and concealment of a homicide.
Safe Passage routes are designed to give students a safe, dedicated path to and from school.
