Jury convicts gang member of Addison murder
Robert M. Meza did not pull the trigger, but a DuPage County jury said the self-admitted gang member is legally accountable for his role in a fatal Addison shooting.
After five hours of deliberations, jurors convicted the 21-year-old Joliet man late Thursday of first-degree murder.
A stoical Meza did not outwardly react after learning his fate. He faces a possible term of 35 to 75 years in prison.
DuPage Circuit Judge George Bakalis, who presided over the two-day trial, may sentence Meza as early as Aug. 19.
A co-defendant, Antonio Aguilar Jr., 18, also of Joliet, who is the accused shooter, faces a separate trial.
Lorenzo Salazar-Cortez was inside a friend's apartment at 320 Dale St., in the Highview Park neighborhood, about 5 a.m. Sept. 15, 2007, when an assailant opened fire from outside the building, through a window, before fleeing.
Salazar-Cortez, 22, who lived in Berkeley but worked nearby in Itasca, was killed after being shot four times in the back.
Prosecutors Steven Knight and Helen Kapas-Erdman said the slain man was an innocent victim whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. They said Aguilar and Meza are members of a particular street gang whose rivals were known to live in the Addison apartment complex.
The defendants likely targeted the wrong apartment after confusing it with that of twin brothers who were part of the rival gang and lived in the next building, prosecutors said.
"Lorenzo came to this country for a better life and this is what he got," Kapas-Erdman told jurors while holding up two autopsy photos of the victim. "Today is the day for justice. Hold this defendant legally responsible."
Police arrested Aguilar and Meza nearly one month after the fatal shooting after developing them as suspects.
Meza did not testify during his trial, but jurors watched a 90-minute police videotaped interrogation in which he admitted driving an armed Aguilar to rival gang territory after a night of partying to start some trouble.
"I didn't shoot him," Meza said on the videotape. "I can't go down for this. I never touched the gun."
His defense attorney, John P. Carroll, urged the jury to acquit Meza. Carroll argued police browbeat Meza into admitting more of a role than he played. Carroll said Meza had no clue Aguilar planned to kill someone that morning.
"This kid didn't kill anybody," Carroll said. "He didn't go to the police afterward because he was scared and shocked. He didn't even know there was a murder until days later."
Police never recovered the murder weapon.
Under the law, a person is legally responsible for the conduct of another when, either before or during an offense, and with the intent to promote or facilitate the offense, they knowingly solicit, abet, or attempt to aid another person in the planning or commission of that offense.
In its guilty verdict, the jury unanimously agreed Meza fit that criteria.
He has remained held in the DuPage County jail since his arrest. Aguilar is due in court July 21. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty against the men, neither of whom had a significant criminal history.