Naperville man get 29 years for killing Chicago deliveryman

For every year Milton Rodriguez's family waited for justice, the Naperville man who killed him will spend an equal amount of time behind bars.

Michael Cosmano was sentenced Friday to 29 years in prison for the June 12, 1981 fatal shooting outside his Chicago pizzeria on the city's near Northwest Side.

Cosmano shot Rodriguez with a .45-caliber pistol in an alley outside Bella's Pizza at 1948 W. Chicago Ave., where the slain man worked as a delivery driver.

The two argued after Cosmano learned Rodriguez, 29, tried to organize other workers to walk out for better pay and improved working conditions.

Rodriguez called his boss "stupid," which prompted an infuriated Cosmano to fire one fatal bullet. Cosmano later gave the gun to an off-duty police officer who worked as his security guard, which prosecutors said sparked a nearly three-decade cover-up.

Detectives with Chicago's cold case homicide unit caught a break in August 2007 after a witness came forward with information that Cosmano was the shooter. The murder investigation was reopened, and other witnesses who said at trial they remained silent out of fear Cosmano had mob ties, gave similar incriminating accounts.

Police arrested Cosmano May 7, 2008, at his Naperville home. The 58-year-old man was convicted Jan. 14. He faced 20 to 40 years in prison when Cook Circuit Judge Vincent Gaughan sentenced him Friday.