Crystal Lake man gets 8 years for Wauconda home invasion
A Crystal Lake man was sentenced to eight years in prison for breaking into a Wauconda apartment and threatening two adults and three children with a gun, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Noe J. Brito-Ramirez, 23, of Crystal Lake, will received 429 days credit for time he has already served in Lake County jail after his arrest in May 2014, defense attorney Greg Nikitas said.
Before being eligible for parole, Brito-Ramirez will need to serve 85 percent of the sentence handed down by Judge George Bridges, Nikitas said. Brito-Ramirez will spend an additional three years on parole upon his release.
Brito-Ramirez, John Nava, 21, of Niles, and Jose Alfredo Dominguez-Eleperez, 28, of Wheeling, all pleaded guilty in May to aggravated discharge of a firearm for entering the apartment in the 100 block of Main Street without authority and attacking the victim.
Nava has since asked to withdraw that plea and take his case to trial. The hearing on his request will take place after his July 16 sentencing.
Authorities said the victim, a Chicago man, was visiting his girlfriend and her children at the apartment when the three rival gang members knocked on the door. They pushed into the apartment and shouted gang slogans as they searched for the victim, authorities said.
The woman placed her children in a bathroom, then entered the bedroom to see the three gang members slashing at the male victim with a knife, authorities said.
She tried to intervene, but Dominguez-Eleperez pulled out a handgun and shot the male victim in the chest from 5 feet away, 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, but were captured by police four days later, authorities said.
Charges of home invasion and attempted murder were dropped in exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors said.
Dominguez-Eleperez is also due to be sentenced July 16.