An Oak Park man pleaded guilty to the murder of a 20-year-old Forest View woman last week, now nearly four years after his initial arrest.
Richard Chavez, 28, pleaded guilty to charges that included first-degree murder for the shocking January 2022 killing of Charisma Ehresman, a nursing student at Triton College found dead in the back seat her car in the 5900 block of West Iowa Street in Chicago. Chavez changed his plea to guilty on Monday, Nov. 3, the day before his trial was set to begin.
His plea included a sentence of 27 years in state prison, with time-served credit for the years he’s spent in Cook County custody, according to court records.
Chavez was arrested on Feb. 18, 2022, a few weeks after Ehresman’s death had been ruled a homicide by strangulation and smothering. The case had dragged on for years, as Chavez’ attorneys had argued that he was not properly Mirandized before giving an interview to investigators shortly after Ehresman went missing.
Investigators had learned that Chavez was the last person she called with her cell phone and that his residence in the 600 block of Maple Avenue in Oak Park was the last location her cell phone had pinged. The last time Ehresman was seen alive was in doorbell camera footage from a condo complex neighbor showing Ehresman and Chavez walking to his home, according to court records.
The doorbell camera never showed Ehresman leaving the complex, according to court records.
Investigators interviewed Chavez shortly after Ehresman had been reported missing, picking him up for a missed court date related to a DUI charge. Chavez told investigators that he had lived in Oak Park for a little over a year before his arrest, according to court records.
He told investigators that they had met on social media and that she must have left his home after he “passed out” that night. Investigators noted that he had fresh wounds on his hands during the interview, which he said were from a weeks-old bar fight that he could not provide details about, according to court records.
Investigators believe that Chavez had driven Ehresman’s car from where it was parked on the street into his condo complex’s garage and then out of Oak Park before abandoning the vehicle in Chicago with her body inside, her face covered by a jacket, according to court records.