Baseball Bat Beating

Horrific Attack Brings Back Memories

By Jim Vail

There is always that one crime that gets people talking about the end of humanity.  There was the Columbine shooting, the Newtown children massacre and the guy who just ended his life after enslaving several women whom he repeatedly raped over a ten year period.

One story that rocked the Chicago headlines a couple of years ago in the city of crime was when a Puerto Rican by the name of Heriberto Viramontes took an aluminum bat and savagely beat two young women, just to rob them.

Natasha McShane, an exchange student from Northern Ireland, was so savagely beaten that she can no longer walk or talk, and needs constant care.  How life can turn from the promise of a wonderful future, to this, is among the many dark mysteries of life.

The jury selection is beginning this week. 

Heriberto Viramontes looks like a movie star with dreamy green eyes.  How someone could do something like this - drugs, intoxication, insanity? - can only be partially explained by experts. Unfortunately, it cannot be stopped.

It lives on, and breeds. Heriberto has a son by the same name who was a student at Columbus Elementary School a few years back.  Joanna Vail was one of his teachers and she remembered him well.

She said his son was quiet, and looked very much like his father, although he was short.

He was, however, very capable of bursting out in a rage that he would not sit down, or do what the teacher would be asking him to do.

However, this only happened, "once in a blue moon."

From what his teacher remembered, Heriberto junior was not living with either his mother or father, but she thinks an older sister.

As we pray for a miracle, the continued recovery of the Irish victim McShane, we should also pray for the children who are exposed and grow up in conditions that can breed such savagery. 

Here's to making sure the young Heriberto does not follow in his father's footsteps, but becomes a beacon of light in a world surrounded by darkness.

Jury Selected For Trial In 2010 Bucktown Baseball Bat Beating

CHICAGO (CBS) – The jury was selected Tuesday in the trial of the man charged with beating two women with a baseball bat in Bucktown in 2010, leaving one of them with severe brain damage.

Natasha McShane, an exchange student from Northern Ireland, was in a coma for weeks. She is still unable to speak after the attack, although the Chicago Tribune reported she recently began taking steps with a walker, as long as people stood at her sides.

She and her friend, Stacy Juirch, were robbed and beaten unconscious on April 23, 2010, as they were walking back to Jurich’s home after going out dancing.

Stacy Jurich (left) and Natasha McShane were beaten with a bat in the Bucktown neighborhood in 2010.

Jurich was lucky to escape the attack with less serious injuries, needing staples in her head. She suffered some cognitive deficiencies, but nothing as severe as McShane’s.

Their alleged attacker, Heriberto Viramontes, goes on trial this week for the attack, which drew international headlines. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Tuesday morning at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building at 26th and California. His alleged accomplice, Marcy Cruz, will testify against him, after pleading guilty and agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a 22-year prison sentence, and immunity from a murder charge if McShane dies from her injuries.

Heriberto Viramontes, and Marcy Cruz are charged with aggravated battery and armed robbery in the beating and robbery of two women in Bucktown.

McShane’s family flew in from Northern Ireland this week to be at the trial, but McShane – 23 at the time of the attack – is still in Northern Ireland. Her family wanted to protect her from any painful memories of the beating.

McShanes’ family walked into the Leighton Criminal Courts Building early Tuesday, but walked out not long after. It was unclear why, but possibly because Tuesday will be dedicated to jury selection, with opening statements not likely until Wednesday at the earliest.

“Hopefully the jury sees what the effects were and feels the pain we all felt over what happened,” said Gorski.

CBS 2′s Derrick Blakely reports Viramontes appeared relaxed and was actively participating with his defense team at times, he smiled and winked at relatives in the courtroom.

Prosecutors have said Viramontes took an aluminum bat and repeatedly struck McShane and Jurich, in order to rob them. He faces 25 felony counts, including attempted murder and armed robbery.Cruz, 28, has admitted she was waiting inside a van when Viramontes attacked McShane and Jurich, then used one of the victims’ credit cards after he robbed them.

Jurich also could take the stand against Viramontes.

Prosecutors also plan to show jurors McShane’s passport and ID, and a state-issued ID card, which were found in the trash at the suspects’ homes.

They also plan to show the jury a video of McShane after the beating – including images of her trying to walk – to demonstrate the severity of her condition after the attack.

Several Irish journalists have traveled to Chicago to cover the trial, which was front page news on the Belfast Telegraph on Tuesday.

“It’s important to support the family. It’s a foreign land, it’s a big city,” said John Gorski, president of the Irish American Heritage Center. “They came here for help. Natasha came here for an education, and a better life, and she didn’t leave that way.”

The IAHC planned to have a representative at the trial every day.