Charges have been upgraded against a man who allegedly beat his roommate to death during a fight July 4 outside their South Side home.
Juan Zavala, 46, and his roommate Alvaro Elizondo, 45, got into a fight about 10 p.m. on July 4 on the street outside their home in the 4400 block of South Wolcott Avenue, police News Affairs Officer Daniel O’Brien said at the time.
Elizondo returned home a short time after the fight and started threatening family members and pushed his 73-year-old mother, who refused medical attention, O’Brien said.
Zavala was found lying unconscious on the sidewalk and taken to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County where he died July 20, more than two weeks after the fight, authorities said.
Elizondo, a resident of Mexico, was initially charged with felony domestic battery, aggravated domestic battery and aggravated battery of a victim over 60.
He now faces a first-degree murder charge in light of Zavala’s death, police said Wednesday.
Elizondo was initially ordered held on $500,000 bond for the battery charges, but appeared in bond court again Wednesday on the murder charge, police said.
Details from his most recent bond hearing were not yet known.