Ex-Boyfriend Sent Threatening Texts To Mariano's Employee: Prosecutor

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — Jailene Flores, 21, who was gunned down at Mariano’s in Evergreen Park, had been planning to take out an order of protection when she finished her shift on Thursday against her former boyfriend who is charged in her death, prosecutors said.

Armoni Henry, 21, was ordered held without bail on a first-degree murder charge following a bond hearing Friday at the Bridgeview Courthouse.

According to the complaint, Henry and Flores had met in school and became friends. Earlier this year, the two worked together at a nursing home in Oak Lawn. In April, Flores obtained an order of protection because of Henry’s past threats of harm, the prosecutor said. The order was issued, but it was never served, and later expired.

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On Monday, Flores’s brother found an Airtag in his sister’s car. The prosecutor said Flores’s brother scanned the Airtag and learned the last four numbers of the tag matched the last four digits of Henry’s phone number.

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Henry went to Mariano’s a few days later where Flores worked, to confront her about the removal of the Airtag, the prosecutor said. Flores became distraught and disclosed the confrontation to her family. She explained that she only talked to Armoni because he threatened to harm her brother and father if she stopped communicating with him, the prosecutor said.

The next day, on July 13, the victim went to Mariano’s for her work shift. The prosecutor said Henry had sent Flores 124 text messages, including texts threatening to kill her that day.

Surveillance video captured Henry arriving at Mariano’s in a red Ford focus at 9 a.m., wearing a black hoodie and parking next to Flores’s car. The prosecutor said Henry looked inside her car, then entered the store where he approached Flores.

Flores and Henry walked to the rear of the store and entered the backroom for employees only, the prosecutor said. The backroom did not have surveillance video.

The manager of the Mariano’s saw them both enter the backroom. He heard gunshots and saw Henry running with a gun in his hands, the prosecutor said. A co-worker of Flores, who was in the backroom, is also said to have witnessed the shooting and escaped through a rear door. The manager chased him, but Henry was able to escape, the prosecutor said. Henry’s escape from the store was allegedly captured on surveillance video.

Just before 9:15 a.m., Evergreen Park police received calls of an active shooter inside the store. Officers evacuated shoppers and employees from the front of the store before proceeding further into the building. Flores was found in the back room with multiple gunshot wounds to the head and chest, prosecutors said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

An autopsy was performed by the Cook County Medical Examiner. The cause of death was determined to be multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death was a homicide. Six 9mm shell casings were recovered from the scene of the shooting.

The prosecutor said the manager and co-worker who had been in the rear of the store positively identified Henry. Flores’s sister and Henry’s ex-girlfriend also positively identified him as a possible suspect from surveillance video from Mariano’s.

Henry’s red Ford Focus was identified on license plate readers fleeing along a path to Chicago, the prosecutor said. An hour after the shooting, Chicago police officers stopped Henry’s car on the North Side, in the 1300 block of West Thorndale Avenue. The prosecutor said police found a 9mm Glock handgun from Henry’s pants pocket. The caliber of the Glock was said to be the same as the shell casings found at Mariano’s. Police also found a black hoodie similar to the one Henry was wearing on surveillance video inside the grocery store, the prosecutor said.

The prosecutor told the judge that Henry has a history of past domestic violence, and not just against Flores, but his ex-girlfriend as well. Two incidents were reported, one of which resulted in a battery conviction in Peoria County. Henry is currently on a conditional discharge for that conviction. A violation of his conditional discharge was filed July 10 when he failed to show up in court.

Henry is due back in court Aug. 11 in Bridgeview.


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