Plea deal reveals new details of Bucktown beating

Three years after an Irish exchange student and her friend were beaten unconscious and robbed under a Bucktown viaduct, the woman who acted as the getaway driver has agreed to testify against the bat-wielding attacker as part of a plea deal.
In exchange for her cooperation, Marcy Cruz, 28, faces a 22-year prison sentence and will avoid being charged with first-degree murder if the most severely injured victim dies. Cruz, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of attempted murder, agreed to testify against co-defendant Heriberto Viramontes, 33, at his scheduled trial on Sept. 9.
Natasha McShane, an exchange student working toward a career in urban planning, was beaten so badly that she can no longer speak or walk. She is now living with her family in Northern Ireland. Her friend, Stacy Jurich, also suffered serious injuries but recovered and was able to return to work.
Court documents filed as part of Cruz’s plea deal provide the most detailed public account yet of what happened in April 2010 when McShane and Jurich were attacked while walking home in the 1800 block of North Damen Avenue after a night out celebrating McShane’s summer internship.
The night of the attack, Cruz left her two young children with her boyfriend and went out to a nightclub with Viramontes. The two ended up having sex and smoking marijuana in Cruz’s van, according to a statement signed by Cruz.
As they drove towards Bucktown, Viramontes began talking about robbing people, according to Cruz’s account.
“Look at all these rich white bitches,” Cruz’s statement quoted Viramontes as saying not long before she parked near Milwaukee Avenue.
According to her account, Viramontes told Cruz he didn’t want her to be a part of this – a reference she understood to the robbery. He then grabbed her boyfriend’s baseball bat and left.
Viramontes returned about five minutes later with two purses, threw the bat into the van and said, “Drive, drive,” according to Cruz’s statement. Cruz knew “something bad had happened” by the look on Viramontes’ face.
A few blocks away, the two went through the purses – Viramontes kept the credit cards and Cruz kept some makeup and a bottle of Dior perfume.
After picking up Viramontes’s girlfriend, Cruz told authorities, the two of them waited outside while Viramontes went in an apartment building on the West Side and smoked crack.