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Mateusz Zabrzenski strangled and stabbed his roommate, Sarah Kresilova, after an argument that grew so loud that multiple neighbors in their Dunning apartment building heard the confrontation, prosecutors allege.

Zabrzenski, 31, then ran to his mother’s home and asked for help to flee to Poland, leaving Kresilova on her bedroom floor, stabbed in the head, neck, chest and abdomen, according to prosecutors. By the time police secured an arrest warrant accusing Zabrzenski of the brutal 2013 attack, he was already out of their reach in Krakow, Poland.

A Cook County judge on Saturday ordered Zabrzenski held without bail after he was extradited from Poland. He arrived in Chicago on Thursday, more than five years after Kresilova, who worked in Chicago as a waitress, was killed.

“He is a flight risk,” said Judge Arthur Wesley Willis, denying Zabrzenski’s public defender’s request for bail.

Zabrzenski appeared in court with the aid of a Polish translator and through the translator told the judge he understood the proceedings.

In the early morning hours on June 24, 2013, Zabrzenski came home to his and Kresilova’s apartment in the 6500 block of West Addison Street and got into a loud argument that grew physical, Assistant State’s Attorney John Brassil said during the Saturday bond hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

Mateusz Zabrzenski.
Mateusz Zabrzenski.

After stabbing Kresilova, Zabrzenski ran to his mother’s apartment, where he told her he had attacked Kresilova, Brassil alleged. He gave her a butcher’s knife to hide, prosecutors said. His mother also noticed blood on his hand.

Chicago police officers later recovered the butcher’s knife from the mother’s apartment, according to Brassil.

Zabrzenski asked his mother for help leaving the country. She borrowed more than $2,000 to buy a plane ticket to Poland, Brassil said.

Zabrzenski also texted and called a friend, and told her he had killed Kresilova and planned to flee to Poland, Brassil said. He said he was at the Polish Consulate obtaining a passport and agreed to meet the friend at his mother’s house.

The friend went to the home and saw Zabrzenski and his mother preparing to leave for the airport, according to Brassil. She yelled at him that Kresilova did not deserve to die and that they needed to report her death.

Brassil said Zabrzenski ignored her and left for the airport. The woman then called police and requested that they check on Kresilova.

Officers found Kresilova on the floor of her bedroom covered in blood with multiple stab wounds. Her autopsy also showed signs of strangulation and blunt force trauma, Brassil said.

Zabrzenski also texted a second friend and asked for a ride to the Polish Consulate. He told the friend that he had fought with Kresilova and that she was dead, prosecutors said. He said he would not call police because they would put him in jail. He also told a third friend about the attack, prosecutors said.

In the 24 hours following the attack, prosecutors say Zabrzenski borrowed more than $2,000 and obtained passport photos for his expired visa as well as an emergency passport.

Chicago police and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office sought Zabrzenski’s extradition in May of 2014, but he fought it. Poland granted extradition earlier this year.

His public defender, Courtney Smallwood, asked the judge to set bail, arguing that he would live with his mother where he could be placed on electronic monitoring. She said he has worked as a tour operator and has no prior criminal history.

Willis, though, said bail would not be “appropriate.”

“There are no conditions that would satisfy the court,” he said.

mbuckley@chicagotribune.com