Crime & Safety

Chicago Heights Man Charged in Murder of Ford Plant Worker

The man was also charged with sexually brutalizing a woman, throwing her in a trunk and setting her on fire, according to the state's attorney's office.

A Chicago Heights man has been charged with multiple violent crimes, including killing a Lynwood man and setting a woman on fire on November 28, according to police.

Leonard Small, 22, of the 1100 block of 5th Avenue, committed several crimes that included the murder of Ford Plant worker Eugene White Jr., 56, according to police. Small is the second arrest in the case, with Calvin Griffin, 23, of Gary, having been arrested in February.

Small was arrested Saturday and held without bond Sunday. 

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Prosecutors said Sunday that a relative of White met Griffin and Small at a party in Chicago Heights and went with them in her car to buy liquor. After they embarked, Small pulled a handgun on her and sexually assaulted her, Assistant State’s Attorney Jason Coelho said. Griffin was armed with an AK-47-style rifle, Coelho said.

The men made her go to a Ford Heights home where they entered by force and attacked the home’s occupant, who fled as Griffin shot and missed him, Coelho said. They robbed the house and left, and their continuing journey around the south suburbs was marked by various sexual attacks on the woman, Coelho said.

They went to White’s home and shot him multiple times, prosecutors said, before raiding his possessions.

Small had bought lighter fluid, and the men eventually forced the woman into the car’s trunk in a wooded area, authorities said. The men doused her and set her on fire, Coelho said, before closing the trunk.

The woman put the fire out, but the two then doused the car and set it on fire, Coelho said. The woman, however, popped the trunk from the inside, fled and called police, he said.

Small was on parole for armed robbery at the time of the murder, according to the Chicago Tribune. He was convicted of armed robbery in May of 2009 and sentenced to seven years in prison, but was paroled in January of 2011.

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