Man held without bail after Logan Square woman found fatally stabbed, her body in duffle bag

Days after Chicago police discovered a missing woman stabbed to death and her body placed in a duffle bag, a judge ordered her boyfriend who was allegedly found with a blood-tinged machete and bags of cleaning equipment held without bail Thursday.

Cook County judge William Fahy determined Genesis Silva should not be released in a bond hearing Thursday. Silva faces a felony charge for concealing a homicidal death, as well as another felony for unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and a misdemeanor for obstructing an officer.

Logan Square resident Brittany Battaglia, 33, had been missing for days before police allegedly found her body at Silva's apartment.

Last Friday, Battaglia told her roommate she was going to Silva's house and then to a party, prosecutors said in court Thursday. When her roommate didn't hear from the woman for two days, she called Battaglia's brother, who quickly learned Battaglia never made it there.

The brother realized Battaglia had stopped sharing her cellphone's location with family a few days earlier. He and the roommate alerted police, prosecutors said.

Chicago Police Department detectives stopped Silva while driving Sunday and then searched his apartment. Inside, they found a large duffle bag in Silva's bedroom, prosecutors said.

Detectives ordered the man to stay outside. He tried to sneak in and was arrested. Officers found an ice pick and two small knives in his possession.

Inside the duffle bag, they found Battaglia's body. She had died of stab wounds, and "her head was almost severed," prosecutors wrote in a court proffer. An attorney for Silva could not immediately be reached for comment.

In further searches of Silva's apartment, officers allegedly saw a tarp with two garbage bags on it in the kitchen. They found shoes, a bucket, a paint suit, black gloves, Clorox and a Swiffer inside. In Silva's backpack, they allegedly found a machete. Many of the items tested positive for blood, and a second machete was found in Silva's car, prosecutors said.

Silva is a registered sex offender in Illinois, according to state police. He pleaded guilty in 2009 to a felony count of aggravated criminal sexual assault with a weapon. He was sentenced to only two years probation despite the Class X felony, court records show.

Silva's ex-wife, Diana Ochoa, alleged he committed "extreme and repeated" physical and mental cruelty in separate court records related to a following divorce proceeding. She alleged he punched her in the chest and pinned her with his knees. The ex-wife said he also bit her, choked her, threatened her with a knife and sexually assaulted her, court records show.

Ochoa told the Tribune that she remembered Silva putting on a "kind, cutesy, happy-go-lucky, artistic" face in public, but that wasn't the truth.

They met when they were 14-years-old and started dating as high school freshmen. They got married after they graduated, a "stupid teenage decision," Ochoa said.

Silva's attack against Ochoa came out of nowhere, she said. She felt like he got off "really, really easy" for assaulting her in 2009 after he had originally been charged with more serious offenses.

When state's attorneys asked her if she was okay with prosecutors reaching a deal with Silva, she told them she wasn't. She insisted they add him to a sex offenders registry so people who might interact might know about what he did.

If he had been found guilty in a different crime, even a non-violent crime like a drug offense, he might’ve gotten a stronger sentence than the one he got for violently assaulting her, she said.

"He tried to kill me. And they treated it like it was nothing," she said. "I was just really disappointed he didn't take a second chance."

Battaglia's younger brother, AJ Battaglia, told the Tribune Thursday the family expects police to charge Silva with first degree murder. The woman's family didn't plan to attend bond court because they are busy planning a funeral.

"Today, I’ve got to put together all the pictures. We’re going to meet with the florist," he said.

But there was another reason he didn't go to bond court, AJ Battaglia said: He and his parents couldn't bear seeing the man they suspect killed their daughter and sister. He hadn't met Silva while his sister was dating the man, the brother said.

"We’re hoping that this guy never gets to breathe fresh air again," he said.

The last week in which his sister went missing and was found dead has been "a nightmare," the younger brother said. Nothing could have prepared him for what happened, and he's now just going through the motions, he said.

His sister had been always busy, bouncing from yoga to a chiropractor appointment to painting classes. She worked painting faces, as a cosmetologist and as an artist, he said.

"She was goofy, funny, always happy. She's never not had a smile on her face. She was smart, energetic, always caring," AJ Battaglia said.

He remembered swimming with his sister in the pool of the Bloomingdale home they grew up in. Eight years older than him, Brittany would cook pizza for AJ and his friends, drive him wherever he had to go and come to his baseball games, he said.

The woman had gone over to the home of Silva, her boyfriend, to cook him dinner after a bad day, AJ Battaglia said. The family is picking up her car and some last belongings in Chicago this weekend.

"She was just trying to help him out. And she ended up getting murdered for it," he said.

Police said detectives were still investigating Battaglia's death Thursday.