High school senior charged in Carmen Barranco's death

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October 3, 2006

By CHRIS BRENNER CBrenner@scn1.com

KENOSHA, Wis. -- A Kenosha high school senior was charged Monday with murder and sexual assault after he lured a 38-year-old Antioch woman with a promise of crack cocaine into an apartment where he allegedly attacked her and bludgeoned her death.

Anthony Heard Jr., 18, a senior at Bradford High School, is jailed in Kenosha County in lieu of a $500,000 cash bond charged with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree sexual assault, attempted armed robbery and burglary, according to the criminal complaint filed in Kenosha County Intake Court on Monday afternoon.

If convicted on the murder charge, he faces life in prison.

He is accused of smashing Carmen Barranco's head face down on a concrete floor, hitting her with a paint can and an electric heater, and choking her with the heater cord, according to the criminal complaint filed in court Monday.

Heard is 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 300 pounds, police records show.

He surrendered to police at 3 a.m. Saturday at the urging of his family, said Kenosha Police Lt. Ron Bartholomew. Heard has no job and had lived with relatives and friends in the Kenosha and Chicago area, Bartholomew said.

He is charged with killing the woman on Sept. 23. Her body was found the following day lying in a pool of blood in the basement of a home at 4611 8th Ave.

According to the criminal complaint, Barranco's body was found near a clothes dryer and washing machine. She was partially clothed and was not wearing underwear, pants or shoes. Several of her teeth were on the floor and there was tissue damage and swelling around her eyes and mouth. An electrical cord from a nearby space heater was found around her neck, police said.

Barranco had lived in several Lake County communities including Wheeling, Round Lake and Gurnee. She attended Grayslake High School and received her GED at the College of Lake County.

At a news conference Monday, Bartholomew said Heard's ex-girlfriend was a member of a family that lived in the first-floor apartment of the 8th Avenue duplex and had been evicted about a month ago. That apartment remains vacant.

He said Heard brought Barranco to the duplex at 2 p.m. Sept. 23 "to buy crack cocaine" knowing the basement apartment was vacant.

Bartholomew said Heard got the victim to go with him in her car to the apartment. "She believed she would be buying crack cocaine."

"The victim knew one of Heard's family members and went to the family member to buy crack cocaine," Bartholomew said. "That's what led to this crime."

According to the criminal complaint, Heard told police "it was his plan to get Ms. Barranco's money and then leave."

He also told police that she refused to give him money and a struggle began. She pleaded with him, police reported, "and they then had sex." "She stood up to put her pants on" and Heard began choking her.

The complaint says Heard grabbed the victim's hair and hit her head twice face down on the concrete floor. He hit her with a paint can and then choked her with a cord from the electric heater. He told police he hit her once with the heater.

Bartholomew said Heard then fled the scene in the basement, or laundry area, of the apartment which was unsecured, he noted.

"It was a crime of opportunity," Bartholomew said. "She showed up looking for drugs and he took advantage of her."

Toxicology test results on the victim have not been completed to determine if drugs were present her body, Bartholomew said.

Barranco drove Heard to the apartment in her Audi which was later towed by police for a parking violation the day before her body was found.

Several members of the victim's family attended the news conference, including her mother and stepfather Carmen and Steven Dax of Gurnee; her sister, Delia Dax, 39, of Barrington; and her brothers, Curtis Dax, 35, of Lake Villa and William Dax of Gurnee.

Family members made no formal statements at the news conference held in the assembly room of the Kenosha Public Museum.

However, following the news conference, Steven Dax talked to media representatives.

"She was a brilliant person," he said of his stepdaughter. "She had a gift of intelligence. We wish she would have used it more fruitfully. Young people have to understand there are bad people in this world."

He said his stepdaughter's dream was to be an attorney, but that dream was shattered when high school counselors advised her against that because of test scores.

"That devastated her," her father said.