Two men get prison sentences for Wauconda attack
The last of three men to plead guilty to breaking into a Wauconda apartment and threatening its residents with a gun were sentenced to prison Thursday.
Jose Alfredo Dominguez-Eleperez, 28, of Wheeling, was sentenced to 11½ years in prison, while John Nava, 21, of Niles, was sentenced to eight years in prison, Assistant State's Attorney Robert Money said.
Each will need to serve 85 percent of the sentence handed down by Judge George Bridges. They will also spend three years on parole after their release.
The third man involved in the attack, Noe J. Brito-Ramirez, 23, of Crystal Lake, was sentenced to eight years in prison and three years of parole during a July 7 hearing.
All three received about 440 days of credit for time served in Lake County jail since their arrests, Money said.
Nava, Dominguez-Eleperez and Brito-Ramirez 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 victims - two adults and three children.
Authorities said 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 man, authorities said.
The woman placed her children in a bathroom, then entered the bedroom to see the three gang members slashing at her boyfriend 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 male 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.
Attorneys for Nava said at a previous hearing he would file a motion to withdraw his plea of guilty and, instead, take his case to trial.