CHICAGO — A convenience store clerk convicted in January of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old runaway boy in the Loop has disappeared after the judge refused a prosecution request to keep him in jail to await sentencing.
A jury needed less than 90 minutes to find Bharath Simha, 22, guilty of criminal sexual assault during the commission of a felony and two counts of kidnapping in connection with the December 2023 attack at 7-Eleven, 4 East Jackson.
But Judge Peggy Chiampas denied the state’s request to revoke Simha’s electronic monitoring status and have him jailed so he didn’t flee to escape prison time, according to court records.
Those records show Simha failed to appear for his next court date on February 14 and yet another date on February 21. During the second hearing, Chiampas decided to sentence Simha in absentia, saying he “willfully absconded.”
She gave him 10 years for the sexual assault, of which he must serve 85%, and seven years for the kidnapping charges. The judge also issued a nationwide arrest warrant for Simha, who is now facing a new charge of escaping electronic monitoring.
Shortly after Simha was arrested in December 2023, prosecutors said a 15-year-old boy who ran away from home after arguing with his mother stopped into the convenience store, only to be sexually assaulted
by the cashier.
Upset with his mother, the boy left home on December 7, 2023, and walked for three or four hours before going to the store around 9 p.m., officials said. After Simha buzzed the boy in, the teen asked Simha if he could do some work, such as cleaning, in exchange for food because he had no money.
Simha agreed and gave him a cookie and directed the boy to the store’s single-stall bathroom, according to a transcript of Simha’s initial detention hearing. The boy entered the restroom, thinking Simha wanted him to clean it in exchange for food.
Instead, Simha allegedly grabbed the boy’s shoulders and forced him to his knees inside the bathroom. Simha exposed himself and forced his private part into the boy’s mouth for “a few seconds,” the transcript said. The teen cried as it happened, and Simha allegedly placed $6 in the boy’s hand.
Prosecutors said the boy fought Simha off and tried to run out of the store, but Simha chased him and blocked his path. Simha struggled with the boy and told him not to tell anyone, but the boy managed to escape.
Once he was out of the store, the boy ran until he saw a Chicago police car and then reported the attack to the officers.
Simha initially denied that he assaulted the boy, but then changed his story to say the boy tried to rob the store, prosecutors claimed. He allegedly told the police that the store didn’t have security video, but investigators found the video and showed him images from the footage.
Officials said Simha changed his story several times during interviews with detectives. After initially claiming nothing sexual happened, he allegedly said something sexual did happen, but it was the boy’s idea. That story evolved again and again, prosecutors stated.
As Simha’s trial was about to begin, his attorney agreed to a prosecution stipulation that the defense could not mention Simha’s immigration status during the trial or raise the possibility that he could be deported, according to court filings.
But when Simha heard that, he “strongly disagreed” and asked his attorney to reverse his position, the filing said.
“The very essence of the Defendant’s defense is that he was afraid that he would be deported as a result of his involvement of any kind with the police since he was working while on a student visa (and not on a work visa),” his attorney wrote in a follow-up motion. The lawyer also said Simha believed that his fear of deportation would explain his behavior during police interviews.
Simha’s attorney during the first court hearing said he grew up in India and earned an engineering degree there.
Here is his mug shot in his 7-11 uniform shirt.
