At a bond hearing at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago on Saturday, a Cook County judge set bail for a Forest Park man accused of murder at $25,000 cash.
If the bond is posted, Nestor Soto would also be allowed only inside his home or at work, which would be enforced by an electronic monitor.
Soto is accused of stabbing his brother, Ivens Soto, to death on Sept. 20 around 2 a.m.
Soto’s private attorney said his client had never once during his 48-hour interrogation changed his story, and that Soto has been accused only because he is the one who found the body.
Soto, the attorney said, is a 38-year-old homeowner with two small children and is a well-respected business owner and chef who is very upset by his brother’s death. Soto is chef and owner of The Whistle Pig, a barbecue restaurant, which opened in July in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago.
Ivens Soto, 25, was an American Airlines flight attendant.
At the bond hearing, the prosecutor argued that when Nestor Soto made the 911 call after finding his brother, he gave the wrong address and phone number, and when firefighters arrived at the scene first, Soto was observed to be covered in blood, but calm.
The prosecutor stated that blood was found in Soto’s ear, and that dried blood was on his front and back sides. When police executed a search warrant on Soto’s cell phone, it was discovered to have been reset to factory defaults.
Both the prosecutor and Soto’s attorney agreed the two brothers went out drinking at a Forest Park bar on the night of the Sept. 19 and afterwards went back to Soto’s residence in the 7700 block of Adams St.
Soto’s attorney said each man went to bed, and when Nestor Soto awoke around 1 p.m., he found his brother in the kitchen.
The prosecutor said Ivens and Nestor Soto were the only people in the home that night, and that there were signs of a struggle, but not of forced entry. He also noted the home is for sale, and that the realty lockbox at the front of the home had not been tampered with.
According to Cook County property records, Nestor Soto and his wife purchased the home in 2015.
