Chicago police commander approved charges in hammer attack, overriding Kim Foxx: report

Gregory Stamps, 31, has been charged in the Saturday murder of a 42-year-old man last weekend, no thanks to Chicago's top prosecutor, Kimberly Foxx.

Stamps is accused of fatally hitting David Castile's head with a hammer "multiple times" at his residence in the 7100 block of S. Lowe Ave, according to the Chicago Police Department and local reports.

He was taken into custody on Sunday and charged on Tuesday morning with first-degree murder, according to court documents. But the charges were only approved after CPD Detective-Commander Charles Brown decided to override Foxx's decision not to immediately approve murder charges, as CWBChicago first reported.

The state's attorney's office has 48 hours to file charges until a suspect is released, and when Foxx's felony review unit had not filed charges by the 44th hour, Brown apparently overrode that decision and approved the murder charge on his own, according to the outlet. Foxx's office told Fox News Digital that it is "unable to comment on pending litigation." 

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The suspect had originally claimed that the victim tried to "rape" him, the source told CWBChicago.

Foxx's felony review unit "was going with possible self-defense, but they wanted the hammer processed to find [Stamps’] prints or DNA even though he admitted to killing the guy with hammer," a source told the outlet. "They’re just looking for any reason to deny charges."

But when Stamps ran into police in the hallway of his building minutes after the incident, covered in blood, he apparently told authorities that he had fallen down the stairs into a pool of blood. Investigators determined that following the murder, the 31-year-old suspect dragged the victim's body down three flights of stairs and dumped it in an alley. He also threw the victim's blood-stained clothes into a dumpster, according to FOX 32 Chicago.

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Stamps also did not call 911 after the incident.

After police read Stamps his Miranda rights, he allegedly continued to talk and admitted to killing Castile with a hammer in his bedroom, CWBChicago reported.

"The medical examiner said there were 20 to 30 skull defects," Murphy told Judge Kelly McCarthy on Tuesday, according to CWBChicago. "That’s 20 to 30 shots to the head that this defendant gave over and over and over again with that hammer. That is not self-defense. That is first-degree murder. And I would point out there are no injuries on this defendant. None … This is not self-defense."

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Murphy continued: "He doesn’t call police. Doesn’t call 911. What he does is he tries to get rid of the body. The first thing he says is ‘I fell down the stairs,’ not ‘he tried to rape me.'"

Stamp's defense attorney suggested the suspect was acting in self-defense. 

Stamps is being held without bond. He was previously arrested for battery and assault on March 1, 2022, when he was held on $1,500 bond and released that same day. He was also previously arrested for theft on Jan 12, 2020, and released that day.

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Stamps had been on parole since May 2018 after serving five years of a six-year sentence for attempted stabbing murder, as well as a three-year sentence for domestic battery. Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said Tuesday that Stamps pleaded guilty to that crime after initially claiming self-defense, CWB Chicago reported.

CPD did not have any further information as of Wednesday morning.