Slain Dad Robbed Couple Having Sex In Evanston Park: Prosecutors

EVANSTON, IL — Prosecutors said the Evanston man who was fatally shot in front of his daughter in a park earlier this month encountered a couple having sex shortly before his slaying.

Servando Hamros, 29, was found dead in the 2100 block of McCormick Place on the night of July 14 after suffering a single gunshot wound to the eye.

Khiyran Monroe, 20, of the 1800 block of Brown Avenue, Evanston, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with Hamros' death.

Monroe turned himself in to police Tuesday and appeared in court for the first time Wednesday in Skokie.

On the night of the shooting, Monroe and his girlfriend had gone to a nearby 7-Eleven, bought some food, brought it to the park near the Evanston Ecology Center and laid together on a blanket, according to prosecutors.

"While [Hamros' daughter] was playing Pokémon Go, [Hamros] encountered [Monroe] and [his girlfriend] on the interior area of the park, in a grassy area along a walking path, engaging in sexual intercourse," said Assistant State's Attorney Mary McMahon.

McMahon said Hamros pulled out his cellphone and began to record Monroe and his girlfriend's sexual encounter. According to the prosecutor, a video he recorded about three minutes before the shooting shows Hamros' daughter playing Pokémon Go and Hamros joking about the couple.

Although no witnesses saw it, McMahon said it appears that Hamros robbed Monroe and his girlfriend at gunpoint, taking their cell phones and causing them to run away, both naked from the waist down.

"It is suspected that an armed robbery had taken place, and that [Hamros] had taken two cell phones from the defendant during that encounter," McMahon said.

Investigators found one of Monroe's cell phones in Hamros' pocket and another by his side, along with a loaded, unholstered gun, according to the prosecutor.

Monroe and his girlfriend retrieved his mother’s SUV, which was parked nearby, and drove back toward the scene of the confrontation, parking it in oncoming traffic in the northbound traffic lane of McCormick Boulevard, McMahon said, citing witness statements.

Shortly after 9:05 p.m., a residential security camera captures the sound of 17 shots, the prosecutor said, and moments later witnesses described seeing the SUV drive away.

"While there are no witnesses who actually see this defendant shooting — no witnesses who were interviewed by the police," McMahon said. "The firearm evidence is consistent with shots coming from the driver's side of Monroe's car."

Detectives also collected video evidence from Monroe's mother's home, where cameras showed him return to the home and get out of the driver's side of the car with no pants, minutes after the shooting, according to McMahon.

Portions of the video show Monroe engaged in "frantic conversation" about someone robbing him and show him holding a gun with an extended magazine, the prosecutor said.

And about an hour after the shooting, someone with latex gloves takes an item out of the house, McMahon said, explaining that police recovered ammunition consistent with the evidence from the scene of the killing but no gun when they executed a search warrant at the house last weekend.

Neither Monroe nor his girlfriend ever reported the armed robbery or the shooting to police, according to the prosecutor.

"And that's because, as the evidence shows, [Monroe] opened fire in anger, in retaliation, into a public park, striking the victim in this case," she said. "When he did that, he committed first-degree murder."

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Both Monroe and Hamros had Firearm Owners Identification cards, but neither were licensed to carry concealed weapons, authorities said.

Monroe is an Evanston Township High School graduate and father of one, according to his defense attorney, Herb Goldberg, who argued that the evidence in the case so far suggests the killing may have been self-defense or perhaps second-degree murder.

"[Hamros] was not playing Pokémon on that night, maybe his daughter was, he wasn't," Goldberg said. "And he decided to rob these people when he had the opportunity."

Goldberg said Monroe and his girlfriend were returning to the spot where Hamros first confronted them because they wanted to retrieve the items they had left behind.

"They came back to the area of where the car was not to shoot him out of revenge, but the girl wanted her phone back, and so did he," the defense attorney. "[Monroe] had no intention of hurting anybody at that time. [Hamros], instead of leaving the scene, being the armed robber that he was, was pursuing them, he was found going in the same direction as the car."

The defense attorney asserted that Hamros came up to the car and threatened Monroe with a gun before he was shot. Although the prosecutor suggested there was no evidence collected by detectives of that version of events, Goldberg said it was consistent with an account of the incident provided by Monroe's girlfriend, although it is not reflected in police reports.

Cook County Associate Judge Anthony Calabrese was tasked with determining whether Monroe should be held without the possibility of pretrial release due to the strength of the evidence or the threat to the community he poses.

"If, in fact, [Monroe] was a victim of some kind of robbery or armed robbery, subsequent to the time that he and the other witness left the scene, they were safe and away from any aggressor," Calabrese said.

"Driving back to the area," he said, "they appear to fire these shots in retaliation from some 112 feet away — which is retaliatory as opposed to a need for self-defense or anything else — discharging perhaps 14 shots into a public park at 9 p.m."

Citing indications that Monroe sought to destroy evidence and never reported the incident to authorities, Calabrese granted the prosecution's request for a discretionary no-bail order and ordered Monroe held at Cook County Jail ahead of trial.

Monroe is due back in court Aug. 16 in Skokie.

Earlier: Evanston Man Shot Dead In Front Of Daughter After Argument, Police Say