Man convicted of 2010 Mount Prospect murder gets additional 20 years
An Elk Grove Township man already serving a 26-year sentence for murder was sentenced to an additional 20 years in prison for trying to hire a hitman to kill his co-defendant while both were being held at Cook County jail.
Edwin Paniagua, 20, was sentenced Wednesday by Cook County Judge Bridget Hughes.
Hughes also imposed Paniagua's original sentence last year after his first-degree murder conviction in the death of Jean Wattecamps, a 52-year-old American Eagle baggage handler who was found stabbed to death in his Mount Prospect apartment in July 2010.
Prosecutors say Paniagua, an admitted gang member, asked a fellow inmate in December 2011 for help in killing co-defendant Marko Guardiola, who pleaded guilty to stabbing Wattecamps in 2014 in exchange for a 33-year sentence. The inmate alerted authorities, who arranged to have an undercover officer pose as a hitman. Paniagua offered to pay the undercover officer $2,000 to kill Guardiola, whom Paniagua believed was going to "flip" on him, according to a letter prosecutors say he sent to fellow gang members.
During Paniagua's murder trial, his attorneys argued that Guardiola manipulated the then 15-year-old Paniagua. They say that on the night of July 21, 2010, Guardiola told Paniagua his plan to rob Wattecamps, whom Guardiola had met earlier that day.
Guardiola, with Paniagua in tow, went to Wattecamps' apartment and bound him to a chair. Both men struck Wattecamps and demanded money. Rifling through Wattecamps' belongings, Paniagua found a knife, which Guardiola used to stab Wattecamps multiple times.
Guardiola's girlfriend, who witnessed the attack, testified that while Paniagua didn't deliver the fatal wounds, he bound the man's legs and hands and kicked him. Paniagua was convicted under the accountability statute, which holds individuals equally responsible for the actions of their partners-in-crime.
Paniagua has about 22 years to serve on his murder sentence. He must complete at least 80 percent of his latest 20-year sentence before he is eligible for parole.