Ten days after leaving prison in 2024, Kaabar Venson donned a surgical mask and entered a Lakeview apartment shared by two men in the 1200 block of West Diversey. He pointed a handgun at both men’s foreheads and restrained them with bedsheets, duct tape, a charger cord, and other materials as the ordeal began. Now, Venson has pleaded guilty to two counts of home invasion in the case and received a 21-year sentence, court records show.
For Chris Murphy, the ordeal began with a seemingly harmless request. He arrived at his new Lakeview home on the evening of May 13, 2024, and found a woman standing outside his door.
“She stopped me and asked me to call her sister,” Murphy told CWB Chicago shortly after Venson was charged. He obliged but got no answer. As it turned out, Murphy said, the number he called did not belong to the woman’s sister. It belonged to Venson, who was inside his nearby apartment, hog-tying his roommate. Unaware that he had been tricked, Murphy went inside…