Teen allegedly made dad sign over $100,000 check before killing him
BY DAN ROZEK Staff Reporter/drozek@suntimes.com April 18, 2011 1:20PM
Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM
After taping his father to a chair, 19-year-old Matthew Nellessen and three accomplices allegedly forced the Arlington Heights man to sign over a $100,000 check from his retirement fund.
When 55-year-old George Nellessen warned his son he would report the theft to police, the younger Nellessen reacted violently — pummeling his helpless father with a baseball bat, then stabbing him in the neck with a steak knife, Cook County prosecutors said Monday.
“He swung the bat full force at his father’s head five times,” prosecutor Maria McCarthy said as Matthew Nellessen made his first court appearance in his father’s April 12 slaying.
After the killing, Matthew Nellessen later tried unsuccessfully to cash the check, then made “numerous” bank withdrawals using his father’s debit card, McCarthy said. He ultimately returned to the family’s Arlington Heights home where his father’s lifeless body still sat tied to a chair, authorities said.
George Nellessen’s body wasn’t discovered until two days after his death when a friend came to the house to check on him after co-workers became concerned that he had missed work, prosecutor Maria McCarthy said during the younger Nellessen’s bond hearing.
Judge Kay Hanlon ordered Matthew Nellessen jailed without bond on first-degree murder and armed robbery charges stemming from his father’s killing.
Three other alleged accomplices — all Chicago residents — remained jailed Monday on bonds ranging from $3 million to $1.5 million.
Those three men: Marlon Green, 20; Armon Braden, 20; and his younger brother, Azari Braden, 19; also face murder and armed robbery charges in the killing.
The murder occurred less than a month after Matthew Nellessen had been released from Cook County Jail, where he had been held for a month after violating his probation on an earlier burglary conviction, authorities said.
The teen returned to Arlington Heights to live with his father, but “was angry at his father for not giving him money that the defendant believed he deserved,” McCarthy said.
The day he was slain, George Nellessen told two co-workers that he planned to kick his son out of the house because he believed the teen was stealing money from him, McCarthy said.
The elder Nellessen, who worked in the tool-and-die industry, told a friend he was afraid of his son.
Matthew Nellessen allegedly recruited Green — whom he had met while jailed — to help him rob his father, authorities said. Green then brought the Braden brothers into the scheme, authorities contended.
Nellessen, Green and Armon Braden allegedly jumped the elder Nellessen when he returned from work on April 12, threatening him with a pellet gun, then duct-taping him to a chair. Azari Braden, who had dropped his brother and Green off near the Nellessen house, wasn’t present during the killing, authorities said.
Matthew Nellessen forced his father to sign a $100,000 check from a retirement account over to him, though his father begged him not to steal the money, McCarthy said.
“The victim had pleaded with Matthew not to take his money because it was his retirement money,” McCarthy said.
After the killing, Nellessen allegedly stole $800 from his dad’s wallet, giving most of the money to Green and Armon Braden.
Nellessen and Green drove into Chicago together that night, buying marijuana and staying in a hotel. Nellessen allegedly made repeated cash withdrawals on April 12 and 13 at ATM machines in the city from his father’s bank accounts — transactions that were all captured on surveillance cameras, McCarthy said.
He also tried but failed to cash the $100,000 check from his father late on April 12 at a South Side currency exchange, though a skeptical clerk at the business kept a copy of the check and Nellessen’s ID, McCarthy said.
Nellessen returned to Arlington Heights on April 13 and was at the home the next morning when a friend came to check on his father.
The teen initially tried to keep the woman out of the home, McCarthy said, but when asked how his father was doing, allegedly replied: “you’ll know when you go in.”
She saw the elder Nellessen slumped bloody and unmoving still bound to the chair and called police.
Matthew Nellessen left the house in his father’s car, but was spotted a few minutes later by Schaumburg police, then curbed following a chase through several other suburbs, McCarthy said.
The $100,000 check signed by George Nellessen was found in the car, she said.
Matthew Nellessen previously had been treated for depression and was taking several prescription medications, his court-appointed attorney said during the court hearing.
A friend of Nellessen’s said the teen had a “horrible” relationship with his father, but said she still was stunned that he had been charged with murder.
“It was really shocking to me. I cried for two days,” said 19-year-old Amanda Meinheit.
She said in the days before the killing, Matthew had suddenly been spending cash freely--even giving her $100.
“Matt all of a sudden got a lot of money,” she said.
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