Wheaton man found guilty of shooting in Wheeling

In the wee hours of April 23, as Guillermo Rocha sat in his car with his girlfriend near his Wheeling home, Aaron Bundy was out hunting, Assistant State's Attorney Shari Chandra said Thursday.

The 26-year-old Wheaton man had been on the prowl for revenge, Chandra told a jury -- retaliation for a rival gang's stabbing of one of his fellow gang members -- when he came upon the duo, trained a laser at them and fired a .22-caliber handgun, nearly taking Rocha's life.

Rocha wasn't in a gang, Chandra said. But, she told the jury, that didn't matter.

"Aaron Bundy was hunting that night," she told them, at one point forming her hand into the shape of a pistol and mimicking the firing of six shots. "Hunting for the first Mexican that he could find."

The jury deliberated two hours before returning the verdict prosecutors had asked for -- finding Bundy guilty of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated discharge of a firearm. The crimes qualify him for six to 30 years in jail.

Bundy, in a dress shirt and tie, kept his head bowed and his eyes closed as the verdict was read. His girlfriend wept openly; his mother called out "It's OK" as he left the room.

Rocha, who still has a bullet lodged in his back, smiled as he left the courthouse but declined to comment.

Both Bundy's mother and his girlfriend, who had testified in his defense, also declined to comment.

Bundy's attorney, Daniel Collins, had painted his client as a family man who lives in a townhouse with his girlfriend and their 1-year-old son. The night of the shooting, his girlfriend's mother said, they all ate dinner together and went to bed before midnight.

But prosecutors say Bundy, of 1677 Trowbridge Court, had been at a gang party that night. He and friends had been scouting unsuccessfully for members of a rival gang when they came upon Rocha and his girlfriend near the 1300 block of Wye Court in Wheeling, prosecutors said.

Bundy fired multiple shots at Rocha, prosecutors said, leaving him face-down on the pavement with his eyes open. He suffered a broken rib and was hospitalized eight days.

Bundy was arrested in June, and prosecutors said he gave a detailed confession. That included identifying himself in footage taken from a security camera that was in a department store parking lot near the crime scene.

Collins, though, argued the video showed someone else and stressed that neither of the victims identified Bundy in court. He also suggested his client's confession may have been made amid the stress of long interrogations and a night in a prison cell, and cited a lack of forensic evidence putting Bundy at the crime scene.

Bundy is set to be back in court Jan. 23 for sentencing.