Waukegan man gets 16 years for killing one cousin, injuring another
A Waukegan man who stabbed one cousin to death and seriously injured another in 2014 was sentenced to 16 years in prison Wednesday.
Juan Guajardo, 40, said little after Lake County Circuit Judge Daniel Shanes delivered the sentence, which was less than the 18 years prosecutors requested but far greater than what defense attorney Jed Stone suggested.
Convicted by Shanes last month of second-degree murder and aggravated battery, Guajardo faced a maximum sentence of 25 years.
The murder charge netted an 11-year sentence and the battery charge a 5-year sentence, to be served consecutively.
Three years will be reduced from the sentence for time served since the June 21, 2014, violence, which followed a night of drinking. Guajardo used a steak knife to kill Manuel Alaniz and to wound Ignacio Alaniz outside the house he shared with one of the brothers.
Wearing the standard blue outfit of a Lake County jail inmate, Guajardo didn't speak on his own behalf Wednesday and simply acknowledged he understood the sentence when Shanes asked him to do so.
Guajardo's brother-in-law, Jaime Contreras, read a victim impact statement before Shanes announced the sentence.
Addressing Guajardo, Contreras told the defendant to think about his actions in prison and to "own up" to what he did.
Assistant Lake County State's Attorney Jim Newman read another statement on behalf of Ignacio Alaniz, who was in the courtroom for the sentencing. The statement recounted a painful recovery from multiple surgeries and the emotional loss of Manuel Alaniz.
"I will never be the same again," Alaniz wrote.
Stone has said Guajardo - who is living in the United States illegally and had been deported twice before the murder - might appeal the verdict. On Wednesday, Stone indicated that appeal might be handled by another lawyer because Guajardo is indigent.