Hernandez guilty of murder in ex-girlfriend's slaying

Rocio Munoz-Ramos said goodbye to her brother Jose before she left their Elgin home for work on Nov. 25, 2008. Neither knew this time would be different. Neither knew this time meant goodbye forever.

But it was, and Wednesday, nearly two years later, a Cook County jury blamed 24-year-old Sergio Hernandez for that, declaring him guilty of first-degree murder and discharge of a firearm resulting in Munoz-Ramos' murder.

Hernandez, Munoz-Ramos' ex-boyfriend, faces a minimum prison sentence of 45 years. Hernandez seemed to smirk throughout Wednesday's testimony, but showed no emotion as the verdict was read after about 90 minutes of deliberation.

"That's what we wanted, that justice be served," said Munoz-Ramos' brother, Jose Munoz-Ramos, through a Spanish interpreter following the verdict.

"She was of a very strong character, but she was very sensitive," said Uriel Munoz-Ramos, another brother who appeared in court along with Jose and Rafael De La Torre-Guzman, Rocio Munoz-Ramos' boyfriend at the time of her death.

The guilty verdict marked the culmination of a three-day trial in which attorneys sparred over whether Hernandez, of the 500 block of High Street in Aurora, acted intentionally. According to testimony, Munoz-Ramos was entering her car in the parking lot of the Hanover Park beauty salon where she worked at 8 p.m. the evening of the shooting.

Prosecutors said Hernandez wore a black hooded sweatshirt when he approached her and, without a word, pointed a 9 mm handgun at her head and pulled the trigger.

It was an accident, Hernandez insisted in an hourlong segment of a videotaped police interrogation shown in court Wednesday. "It was a mistake. It was an accident," Hernandez said in Spanish in the video. "I myself killed her, but it was an accident."

He said he wanted to talk with Munoz-Ramos, 26, after she finished work. The trigger of the gun, Hernandez explained, was highly sensitive, and he pulled it in a moment of nervousness.

Nonsense, said Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Mike Gerber in his closing argument.

"This was no accident. This was an assassination," Gerber said. "This is a guy who wants to control a woman. This is a guy who wants to say, 'If I can't have Rocio, nobody will.'"

In her closing arguments, Cook County Assistant Public Defender Helen Tsimouris called the killing a "horrible, tragic accident." She compared the single shot fired to fatal accidents that sometimes occur when gun owners clean their guns.

The prosecution painted a very different picture of the scene, insisting that Hernandez's killing of Munoz-Ramos was not reckless or unintentional.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there's a killer among us, sitting in this room - Sergio Hernandez," said Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Mike Andre. "He brutally murdered his ex-girlfriend. He turned an innocent young woman into nothing more than a memory."

The defense expressed disappointment and indicated they will appeal the verdict.

Hernandez appears for sentencing on Aug. 23 in Rolling Meadows.