Joliet man gets 40 years for 1997 Downers Grove murder for hire
A Joliet man convicted in the 1997 murder-for-hire slaying of a Downers Grove man was sentenced Friday to 40 years in prison.
A jury convicted Jose Ruvalcaba-Quezada, 35, of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Jose Ortiz on Dec. 27, 1997. Prosecutors said he was paid $10,000 and given a car to commit the murder.
Prosecutors said Ruvalcaba-Quezada was hired to kill Ortiz because, at the time Ortiz was married to the ex-wife of the unidentified man who allegedly ordered the hit.
"It's very obvious Jose (Ortiz) was a good, hardworking family man but to the defendant, he was nothing more than a paycheck," Assistant State's Attorney Steve Knight said during Friday's sentencing hearing as he sought a natural life sentence. "Just like Jose (Ortiz) had no hope for survival as he lay on the sidewalk gasping, this defendant should have no hope of ever walking free or breathing free air. He does not deserve that hope."
Ruvalcaba-Quezada continued to maintain his innocence.
"I have been found guilty for something I haven't done. I feel very sad for the death of the person killed," he said through an interpreter. "Due to my poor English, I was beaten by police and asked to write something down that I did not understand."
During his trial, prosecutors said Ruvalcaba-Quezada hid behind the Ortiz family's garage near Downers Grove, and waited for Jose Ortiz to leave for work around 6 a.m. on Dec. 27, 1997.
As Ortiz, 39, walked toward the garage, Ruvalcaba-Quezada surprised him and fired six shots from a 9 mm handgun, with one bullet striking Ortiz in the chest.
In a victim impact statement read in court Friday, Ortiz's then unborn daughter Ailani Ortiz, now 17, said she does not hate Ruvalcaba-Quezada and feels sorry for his family that they are now losing the husband and father her family lost in 1997.
"Growing up, I always wondered why I didn't have a dad like the other kids, until my mom told me what happened before I was born," she wrote. "My dad was not there to hold me, rock me or help me take my first steps."
Prosecutors said another man, known only as "Chongo," who Ortiz knew from living in Mexico, wanted Ortiz dead and paid Ruvalcaba-Quezada as much as $3,000 up front to commit the murder. After killing Ortiz, Ruvalcaba-Quezada had to call "Chongo" to collect the rest.
Ruvalcaba-Quezada then fled Illinois. He was deported to Mexico in 1999 after becoming the target of an unrelated rape investigation in Utah, but then illegally returned to the U.S. in 2003 and lived under a false identity, Victor Lopez, with his wife in South Carolina, authorities said.
During the rape investigation, authorities recovered a diary in which they said he described receiving "good pay" to shoot a man with a 9 mm firearm as the victim left home for work.
When questioned about the diary, prosecutors said Ruvalcaba-Quezada shrugged it off and said it was fiction and that he was working on a book.
Authorities filed charges in 2008 but did not locate Ruvalcaba-Quezada until Jan. 12, 2012 in a South Carolina restaurant.
Ruvalcaba-Quezada must serve the entire sentence before being eligible for parole at the age of 72 when he will likely be deported.