May 03, 2010|By William Lee, Jeremy Gorner and Andrew L. Wang, Tribune reporters
Even among divorce cases, the court battle to end Arturo and Natividad Bahena's rocky decades-old marriage was contentious for attorney Carmen Quinones.
While the 12-year case was often bitter with both sides agreeing on little, the biggest hurdle was what to do with the couple's faded yellow apartment house at 1700 W. Erie St. in the city's West Town neighborhood.
The case often stalled until a divorce judge ordered the home be sold and the proceeds divided between the two.
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But Chicago police say the 72-year-old patriarch gunned down his adult sons Romeo, 44, and Rodolfo, 42, on Sunday afternoon before fatally shooting himself after the men served their father with a formal legal notice to leave the building.
Autopsies performed Monday ruled that both younger men died of multiple gunshots, while their father died of a gunshot wound to the head in a suicide, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
The double murder-suicide devastated the men's mother, Natividad, who spent much of Monday in bed grieving the loss of her sons. Through her lawyer Quinones, Natividad Bahena, who has 12 children, declined an interview request.
The sons assumed ownership of the Erie property for their 68-year-old mother and were working to sell the home on her behalf, police sources said. Police wouldn't confirm the type of paperwork the sons brought to their father, but Chief of Detectives Thomas Byrne said Arturo Bahena "was no longer wanted there."
"It's a tragedy," Quinones said. Cases like the Bahenas' divorce, which she said involved years of physical and mental abuse against the wife, were especially hard to handle.
"People have to listen," Quinones said. "They have to listen more to families. Things are happening like this in families. This isn't just about a house, a few thousand dollars."
Although Quinones wouldn't discuss specific details of the case, court records show that the elder Bahena — sometimes listed in documents as Arturo Bahena Martinez — fought the sale, or even to pay for the appraisal of the home.
About noon Sunday, witnesses reported hearing gunshots and seeing the retiree opening fire on the victims, who both eventually collapsed outside the family home. One witness told the Tribune that the elder Bahena walked over to one of his downed son and fired three or four shots as the man shouted "no."
On Monday, police Superintendent Jody Weis had harsh words for Arturo Bahena for the "ambush style" killings of his sons. He noted that Bahena was convicted of unlawful use of a weapon in 1978 and 1991.
"Their lives will never be the same due to this selfish and cowardly action of this murderer, who, after committing these crimes, turned his gun on himself rather than face justice," Weis said.
Tribune reporter Annie Sweeney contributed to this report.
wlee@tribune.com
jgorner@tribune.com
alwang@tribune.com
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