Addison drug dealer gets 15 years for shooting over $550 debt

An Addison drug dealer was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison for shooting at point-blank range a man who owed him $550.

Martin Tapia-Aguilar, 26, pleaded guilty last month to aggravated battery in connection with the Feb. 3, 2009, shooting on the 400 block of South Addison Road. He had faced up to 30 years.

Addison police Gangs Investigator Jose Gonzalez testified Tapia-Aguilar approached the victim outside a local business, put a semiautomatic handgun to his head, and demanded repayment of a $550 debt.

When the victim, then 28, told Tapia-Aguilar he didn’t have the money — and subsequently refused to hand over his car keys — the defendant forced him into a minivan waiting nearby with two other armed men inside, Gonzalez said. At some point, the gunmen began arguing. and the victim attempted to flee.

Gonzalez said Tapia-Aguilar stopped the victim by grabbing the hood on his sweatshirt. The victim then slipped out of the shirt, at which point Tapia-Aguilar opened fire.

Police arrived moments later to find the victim with gunshot wounds to the chest and left arm. “He thought he was going to die,” Gonzalez said Thursday.

After the shooting, Gonzalez said, Tapia-Aguilar fled to California, where he was arrested in early March. He was later extradited to DuPage and charged with attempted first-degree murder.

Authorities said the shooting happened while Tapia-Aguilar was under investigation for dealing cocaine to undercover officers. Gonzalez said the victim, who was hospitalized for several days, identified the defendant in a photo lineup, and Tapia-Aguilar eventually confessed.

At sentencing Thursday, the defendant asked for leniency, saying he had found God and was working to better his life through educational and spiritual programs in jail.

“I’m very sorry for what happened that day,” he said. “I am not an aggressive person, and had never acted in that manner before. Nevertheless, I hurt somebody. I agree I’ve got to go to prison. I just want the opportunity to show I’m not a bad person.”

Assistant State’s Attorney Audrey Anderson, who sought a 19-year term, said Tapia-Aguilar illegally immigrated to the U.S. with his family as a teen, and has since spent his time here using stolen identities as his own, driving without a valid license, and dealing hard drugs.

“Since coming here,” she said, “the defendant has not really done anything legally.”

Judge Kathryn Creswell noted the seriousness of the shooting, as well as Tapia-Aguilar’s flight to California and criminal background, in sentencing him to 15 years. Working in his favor, she said, was the fact that he pleaded guilty, accepted responsibility, and has been working to “better himself” while in custody. By law, Tapia-Aguilar must serve nearly 13 years before he will be eligible for parole. He was given credit for about two years in the county jail.