CHICAGO – A judge on Thursday sentenced a man to 47 years in prison for setting a known homeless man on fire in River North, leading to the victim’s death weeks later.
Joseph Guardia, 30, pleaded guilty to one count of murder in exchange for Judge Timothy Joyce’s sentence.
Guardia was AWOL from two pending burglary cases when, around 3 a.m. on May 25, 2022, he encountered 75-year-old Joseph “Walking Man” Kromelis, who was sleeping near a loading dock on Lower Wabash Avenue near Trump Tower.
Prosecutors said Trump Tower surveillance video showed Kromelis sleeping with his head and other limbs sticking out of the covers when Guarida walked up to him and stood over him for about 16 seconds as the 75-year-old slept. There was no apparent interaction between the men before Guardia poured liquid, believed to be gasoline, from the McDonald’s cup on Kromelis’ head and set it on fire, officials said.
During an initial bail hearing, Assistant State’s Attorney Danny Hanichak, a prosecutor for 16 years, told Judge Charles Beach that he had never seen video footage as gruesome as the attack on Kromelis. He said Kromelis burned for about three minutes before security guards from a nearby building extinguished the flames. Doctors believed Kromelis’ injuries were unsurvivable, but he clung to life for almost seven months before succumbing to his injuries.
Police pieced together footage from a series of surveillance cameras stretching from Trump Tower to O’Hare and Melrose Park as they tracked Guardia’s movements before and after the attack, Hanichak said. Throughout the footage, Guardia wore the same striking black and white Hoodrich brand outfit as the attacker. A dollar sign tattoo on Guardia’s face was also visible in some of the footage, Hanichak said.
Guardia is said to have run away when Kromelis was lying around, with his head and upper body engulfed in flames. The fire spread and engulfed his entire upper body. He eventually collapsed against a wall while still on fire, “moving less and less,” Hanichak said.
Nearly three minutes after the fire started, Trump Tower security guards spotted the flames and extinguished the fire. They tried to comfort Kromelis as they waited for first responders.
Investigators found a McDonald’s cup at the scene. It’s being tested at the state crime lab.
After walking away from the scene, Guardia took a Blue Line train to O’Hare and then rode an inbound train to Forest Park before continuing to Melrose Park on a Pace bus.
Detectives shared CTA surveillance footage with the public Wednesday evening, and a Melrose Park police officer who had known Guardia since childhood immediately identified him, Hanichak said. The suburban cop also works security at a plasma center and he recalled seeing Guardia that day and three days earlier at the clinic in the same Hoodrich outfit. Surveillance images from the plasma center would confirm the police’s memories.
Police arrested Guardia in Melrose Park after someone familiar with the CPD’s “wanted” bulletin called 911 upon seeing him in public.
During an interview with police, Guardia said he found the McDonald’s cup filled with gasoline and decided to set something on fire because he is “an angry person,” Hanichak said. Guardia claimed he set blankets on fire and didn’t know anyone was under them.
Hanichak called that claim a lie.
“It takes a special kind of evil to do what this defendant did,” Hanichak said. “He had him burned alive for three minutes.”
At the time of the murder, two arrest warrants had been issued for Guardia, who had failed to show up for two burglaries in the suburbs more than a year earlier. Those cases are still pending, as is an aggravated battery case he picked up while in the county jail awaiting trial on murder charges.
