‘She was her name’: Man gets 27 years in murder of 20-year-old nursing student

CHICAGO — An Oak Park man accused of killing a 20-year-old nursing student in 2022 was sentenced to 27 years in prison Monday after taking a plea to avoid a trial.

The trial of Richard Chavez, accused in the murder of Charisma Ehresman, 20, of Forest View, was set to begin on Monday. He took a guilty plea deal instead and was subsequently sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Ehresman was reported missing and then was found dead inside her vehicle in Chicago’s 5900 block of West Iowa a few days later. Ehresman’s death was ruled a homicide by strangulation and smothering.

Detectives learned that her last phone call was made to Chavez and her phone last pinged near his Oak Park residence in the early morning hours of Jan. 24, 2022.

Court documents state that Ehresman and Chavez began speaking to each other on social media in the days before her death.

Her parents, Christina and Jeff, told WGN News they met over Instagram.

“She was not the person to not come back home,” her father said. “That night I was texting with her and assumed she fell asleep.”

Ring footage from a nearby residence never showed Ehresman leaving the Oak Park home, documents allege.

Chavez allegedly entered her Ford Fiesta and drove it to the 5900 block of West Iowa on the West Side of Chicago the following morning. Prosecutors claim the vehicle’s black box recorded that the vehicle was moved into the garage around a half hour before Chavez left.

Authorities allege Chavez’s brother picked him up just before 9:40 a.m. that morning less than a mile from where Ehresman’s car was found.

Chavez was initially placed into custody from an outstanding DUI warrant and police noticed lacerations on both of his hands and he appeared to cut his hair.

Chavez allegedly told his parents to get his passport ready during a recorded phone call while in police custody, documents state.

While being reported as missing for a few days, Ehresman’s body was found in the backseat of her car on Jan. 28, 2022 with a jacket covering her face.

A search warrant was executed at Chavez’s home on Jan. 31 and authorities allegedly found a partially packed suitcase, hair clippings in his garbage and a mask he was observed wearing on the day of the alleged murder.

Ehresman attended Morton West High School and was very excited to be working on her nursing degree at Triton College.

“Charisma was everyone’s problem solver — over 2,000 people showed up to her funeral” Ehresman said. “She wasn’t your average person, her name is who she was. She had this charisma to her.”

Her parents told WGN News there is not justice.

“There is no justice — nothing is going to bring our daughter back,” Jeff Ehresman said. “He’s still going to get to call mom on holidays, she gets to hear her child’s voice.”