A man who recently moved back into his 88-year-old mother’s Roseland home beat her to death then loaned her car in exchange for crack, prosecutors said Friday.
Kevan Works bludgeoned his mom, Daniest Graves, badly in the head, according to police who found her body days later wrapped in a rug, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Pekara said.
A cadaver-sniffing dog allegedly found her decomposing body in Works’ basement room. The room’s door had been concealed behind a bookcase, Pekara said.
The evidence prompted Cook County Judge Rivanda Doss Beal to say the crime was “violence inflicted against the victim to get her things.”
And it led to an outburst from the defendant’s half-brother from the gallery.
“Kevan, look at you,” Clyde McLemore said as the hearing drew to a close at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse at 26th Street and California Avenue.
Prosecutors said Works, 66, was defensive about his mother going missing.
Family became suspicious after they stopped receiving Graves’ daily morning prayer texts
The 88-year-old also failed to show up to her part-time job, and her sister couldn’t get her on the phone to finalize plans for Palm Sunday services.
When Graves’ sister showed up at the home and asked to come inside, Works told her she couldn’t come in, Pekara said.
Works claimed his mom had gone missing after she drove to work March 27, Pekara said. He allegedly claimed she had dementia and must have wandered off.
But that didn’t add up to family who knew her to be healthy.
So family asked police to conduct a well-being check of the home on March 30, the day they reported her missing, Pekara said.
Police showed up and couldn’t find Graves. They busted open the locked door to her bedroom and found no one, Pekara said.
From there, investigators tracked Grave’s car several miles away to a parking lot on the West Side, Pekara said.
Police questioned the woman using the car. She told police she gave Works crack in exchange for it, and had driven Works and a white woman back to the Roseland home after receiving the car, Pekara said.
She told police there were two black bags in the car that Works had asked her to throw away, Pekara said. But she refused and Works allegedly took them back home.
On Tuesday, police got a search warrant and returned to Graves’ home in the 10700 block of South Lafayette Avenue.
In addition to finding Grave’s body hidden in the basement, police found a bottle of bleach, scattered coffee grounds and several air fresheners throughout the home, Pekara said. Police also allegedly found a bloody knife and brass knuckles.
Jewelry boxes in the attic had been emptied, and the jewelry was found elsewhere being cleaned, Pekara said.
Police arrested Works at the home, and prosecutors later charged him with murder and concealment of a homicide.
Surveillance video from a neighbor’s home camera showed that only Works had entered or left the home from the time Graves went missing, except for the white woman who had visited only once, Pekara said.
An autopsy found that Graves had suffered 17 blunt force wounds and had marks on her arms that showed she defended herself, Graves said.
The judge ordered Works detained pending trial.
Prosecutors noted that Works was most recently convicted of bank robbery in 2007 and was sentenced to 7 years in federal prison. He also served time for previous theft, forgery and damage to property convictions. As a juvenile, he was adjudicated of murder in 1976, prosecutors said.
Works’ assistant public defender said he has been homeless over the last decade and moved in with his mother six months ago.
After the court hearing, Works’ half-brother told reporters their mother made great sacrifices when Works was accused of murder in the late 1970s.
“She sold the house and everything and got him served as a juvenile,” he said.