Soldier Who Smashed Security Guard’s Eye Socket Sentenced
SKOKIE, IL July 28 2019— The U.S. Army veteran who punched a security guard as she cleaned up his vomit outside a River North condo pleaded guilty last week in Skokie in exchange for a three-year prison sentence.
The attack, which left the guard with a fractured eye socket and nose, was recorded by a surveillance camera in a widely shared video.
Matthew De Leon, 25, of Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood, was convicted of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm for the May 14, 2017, attack outside the condo building in the 600 block of North Franklin Street.
He was initially charged with three counts of aggravated battery, a class 3 felony punishable by probation or between two and five years in prison.
De Leon was on active duty at the time of the incident but later left the army with an other than honorable discharge.
He turned himself in to Chicago police within days of the attack after seeing the video. At his initial court appearance, his lawyer told the court he was “going to make this right for the victim and her family.”
Security camera video shows Zoa Stigler, the guard De Leon punched, approach him to offer help after he slumped down outside the building around 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning. De Leon was seen throwing up on the sidewalk before he was joined by three people identified by prosecutors as his wife, sister-in-law and her boyfriend.
It appears words were exchanged as the group begins to walk away from the building. De Leon then turns toward Stigler and throws a bottle of water at her. As she walks toward him and brushes her hair from her face, he punches her in the eye, causing her to stumble several steps backward into the bucket she was using to clean up his vomit.
De Leon and his family members then walked away without offering Stigler any help.
Their faces were blurred in the surveillance video released by Chicago police and they were not charged with any criminal offenses.
