An ex-Marine accused of two Arlington assaults might be closer to being charged with the murder of two young girls in Illinois.
Jorge “George” Torrez’s DNA reportedly links him to the May 2005 slayings of Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9, who were found beaten to death in a Chicago-area park. Prosecutors dropped murder charges Wednesday against Laura’s father, Jerry Hobbs, who has spent the past five years in jail awaiting trial.
Legal experts said the dropped charges against Hobbs mean prosecutors will likely seek charges against a new suspect.
The case against Torrez, based on DNA found at the crime scene, is expected to be much stronger than the case against Hobbs, experts said. Hobbs gave a confession he later said was coerced.
» May 2005: Laura Hobbs and Krystal Tobias are found beaten to death in an Illinois park. Jerry Hobbs is charged with the murders.
» February 2010: Jorge “George” Torrez is arrested in connection with the abduction and robbery of a woman in Arlington.
» June 2010: Torrez is charged with another Arlington attack.
» July 2010: Illinois prosecutors disclose that a national database matched DNA from the Zion crime scene to another suspect.
» August 2010: Charges are dropped against Hobbs.
Torrez, who used to live in Zion, Ill., has not been charged in that state. Arlington police allege that he robbed and tried to abduct one woman and raped another in separate incidents in February, when he was stationed at Henderson Hall.
Torrez is in custody at the Arlington County Detention Facility. Arlington authorities said Wednesday that they are not involved in the Illinois case and have not been asked to make arrangements to move Torrez for proceedings in another jurisdiction.
Hobbs’ release indicates that the DNA match, identified this summer, led prosecutors to “a much more plausible suspect than the person they had in custody,” said David Bernstein, a law professor at George Mason University.
Prosecutors must still establish that the suspect was in the area and had access to the crime scene, but “a positive DNA match is pretty compelling evidence,” Chicago-Kent College of Law professor Douglas Godfrey said.
But building a case against Torrez requires redoing much of the investigation, which could be a challenge for prosecutors, Godfrey said.
“Doing an investigation five years after the fact is doubly or triply difficult,” he said. “People move, people forget.”
Lake County prosecutors did not return calls or e-mails for comment Wednesday. Torrez’s attorney was on vacation and could not be reached.
