Beach Park man sentenced to 35 years for murder, torture

A Beach Park man will spend 35 years in prison after assisting in the torture and murder of a 27-year-old Waukegan man wrongly accused of sexual assault.

Eric Castillo, 26, of the 38000 block of North Sheridan Road, was found guilty by a jury in February of holding down David Campbell while other people suffocated him with plastic bags and burned him with a blow torch on July 5, 2011.

Castillo must serve 100 percent of the sentence and is not eligible for parole.

Authorities said the five — including Castillo — were looking for revenge when they lured Campbell to the Waukegan auto-body shop on Dugdale Street through a fake drug deal.

After Campbell entered the shop's office, Castillo grabbed Campbell and held him while a second assailant hit him in the head with a hammer, authorities said.

The five assailants interrogated, tortured, and eventually killed Campbell in the garage, before dumping his body in the Penny Road Pond in unincorporated Cook County near Barrington, authorities said.

The five conspired to hide Campbell's car in Indiana, before splitting up $15,000 to $20,000 in cash Campbell had brought to the garage for the false drug deal.

Police said the attack against Campbell came after he was wrongly accused of sexually assaulting one of the female assailants five days earlier.

This is the third of four cases involving Campbell's death that resulted in lengthy prison sentences.

Jose Horta, 21, of the 300 block of Edison Court in Waukegan, was sentenced in March to 59 years in prison after he was found guilty of murder in November.

Roberto Guzman, 26, of the 1000 block of Berwick Boulevard in Waukegan, was sentenced to 29 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in May, 2013.

Nadia Palacios, 24, of 3500 block of Windhaven Drive in Waukegan, is awaiting trial.

A fifth suspect in Campbell's murder has eluded capture.