Man to withdraw guilty plea in Wauconda shooting

A man who admitted breaking into a Wauconda apartment and shooting a 26-year-old Chicago man wants to withdraw his guilty plea, his attorney said Tuesday in Lake County court.

John Nava, 21, of Niles pleaded guilty in May to aggravated discharge of a firearm for breaking into the apartment in the 100 block of Main Street and threatening two adults and three children. His attorney, Jeffrey Altman, filed a motion to withdraw the guilty plea because, he said, Nava didn't have enough time to review the deal before signing it.

Judge George Bridges determined the motion should be reviewed after Nava is sentenced July 16 to six to 15 years in prison for the break-in.

Nava is the third of three men who have pleaded guilty to entering the apartment about 8:30 p.m. May 4, 2014.

Jose Alfredo Dominguez-Eleperez, 28, of Wheeling and Noe J. Brito-Ramirez, 23, of Crystal Lake pleaded guilty to the same charges as Nava and face similar sentencing ranges.

Brito-Ramirez is due to be sentenced to prison June 22. Dominguez-Eleperez was due to to be sentenced Tuesday, but the hearing was continued to July 16 due to availability of witnesses, Assistant State's Attorney Robert Money said.

Authorities said the victim was visiting his girlfriend and her children at the apartment she rented when the three rival gang members knocked on the door. They pushed into the apartment when the woman answered the door and shouted gang slogans as they searched for the victim, authorities said.

The woman placed her children in a washroom, then returned to the bedroom to see the three gang members slashing the male victim with a knife, authorities said.

She tried to intervene in the attack when Dominguez pulled out a handgun and shot the male victim in the chest from 5 feet away, authorities said. The bullet narrowly missed the woman's face, authorities said.

Police said the woman and her three children were not injured, and the victim made a full recovery. Nava, Brito-Ramirez and Dominguez-Eleperez ran from the apartment after the shooting, authorities said, but were captured by police four days later.

Charges of home invasion and attempted murder were dropped in exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors said.