Left-to-right: Mathew Nellessen, Azari Braden, Marlon Green, Armon Braden (Arlington Heights Police Department photos).
Matthew Nellessen, 22, convicted of one count of first-degree murder on March 19, 2014 was sentenced to life in prison without parole at a hearing June 26 at the Rolling Meadows courthouse by Judge Martin Agran.
Three alleged accomplices — at least one who hid in a closet for an ambush — are Marlon Green, 20; Armon Braden, 20; and his younger brother, Azari Braden, 19. All three face murder and armed robbery charges in their cases, which are still pending. The three suspects have pleaded not guilty.
Lack of remorse cited as judge’s reason for maximum sentence
“Given everything I’ve learned about this case, a sentence of natural life is not only not excessive, but it is the only sentence which I could have imposed for the protection of society.”
— Judge Martin Agran
In the case against Matthew Nellessen prosecutors claimed that Matthew Nellessen taped his father George Nellessen to a chair in the living room of their home in the 1000 block of North Wilshire Lane just south of Oakton Street on April 12, 2011. Prosecutors then claimed Nellessen forced his 55-year-old father to sign over a $100,000 check from his retirement fund.
When the father threatened to call police, Matthew Nellessen “swung the bat full force at his father’s head five times” and stabbed him in the neck with a steak knife, prosecutors claimed.
George Nellessen’s body was found two days later on a Thursday morning April 14, 2011, when a concerned co-worker went to check on him. Matthew Nellessen had returned to the scene of the crime, and initially tried to keep the woman out of the home. When the co-worker asked how his father was doing, Matthew Nellessen allegedly replied, “you’ll know when you go in.” He then fled the scene in his father’s Lincoln Mercury Marquis.
The pale green Lincoln Mercury Marquis was spotted just south of Harper College by a Schaumburg police officer in an unmarked police car. The pursuit continued through Harper College campus at slow speeds and then westbound Route 62, to Route 25 and Route 72 where he was captured near Van Buren and William’s Place in East Dundee after a rear tire went flat.
See also …
The Cardinal Armed Robbery, 1st Degree Murder: Mathew Nellessen, Marlon Green, Armon Braden, Azari Braden Charged in Murder of George Nellessen
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