Party-Going Man Accused of Cutting 16-Year-Old Girl's Throat

MARKHAM, IL — Prosecutors say a 32-year-old man slit the throat of a 16-year-old girl he met online when he could not pay her for a sexual encounter.

Antonio Rosales is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Chicago girl Desiree Robinson, whose body was found in a garage in the 16200 block of Hamlin Avenue in Markham on Christmas Eve.

Prosecutors in court Friday said Rosales and his sister attended a party on the night of Dec. 23 in the same block where she was later killed. As the party was ending, prosecutors say Rosales found Robinson on Backpage.com and invited her to join them. A witness told prosecutors Robinson came to the party with friends and later had sex with Rosales in his truck, ABC-7 reports.

Rosales allegedly told police he had no money for the encounter, so he punched Robinson and slit her throat inside the garage. He denied the pair had sex.

Robinson's friends were asleep in the car outside. Rosales knocked on the car door and told them Robinson would be out soon, prosecutors said. The friends later went to the homeowner to open up the garage and discovered their friend's body and the knife.

Robinson was reported missing by her grandparents on Nov. 29.

Dennis Treadwell, Robinson's grandfather, told ABC 7 Chicago about filing the missing persons report with Chicago Police.

"We thought it was a situation where there was some danger there. So we better let the officials deal with it," he said. "I am very angry, very distraught about taking a young person's life so soon before they can develop into a person with any kind of integrity. And she's gone."

Robinson's mother Yvonne Robinson expressed her heartbreak to ABC-7.

"I want everybody to know Desiree was a beautiful, kindhearted, free-spirited girl," she said. "She didn't deserve this. And there are a lot of babies out here that don't deserve it."

Photo Courtesy of Cook County Sheriff's Department: Antonio Rosales