Aurora man convicted of 1995 double murder gets life in resentencing

An Aurora man convicted of a 1995 double homicide in Glendale Heights has been resentenced to natural life in prison without parole.

DuPage County Judge George Bakalis resentenced Joseph Arrieta, 40, for the 1995 murders of Anthony Moore and Edward Riola following a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a mandatory sentence of natural life for those younger than 18 at the time of the crime violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

The court ruled that anyone younger than 18 sentenced to mandatory life in prison must receive a new sentencing hearing. Arrieta was 17 at the time of the murders, just three months shy of his 18th birthday.

Arrieta was convicted on March 11, 1996. At that time, Illinois law mandated a sentence of natural life in prison without the possibility of parole in the case of double murders.

As a result, a sentencing hearing was unnecessary and Arrieta was sentenced to mandatory life imprisonment, as required by Illinois law.

Arrieta's new sentencing hearing was held on Aug 8.

Bakalis ruled Tuesday that the "petitioner's original sentence to natural life imprisonment was correct" and that his request "to be sentenced to something less than life imprisonment is denied."

DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin applauded the ruling.

"Judge Bakalis' decision today is absolutely correct," Berlin said. "This was a coldhearted, planned killing by a man who, once informed by others that Mr. Moore was still alive after being shot, actually went back to the room where he shot Mr. Moore and shot him again to make sure he was dead."