25-year sentence for a backpack

Words can never convey the anguish a parent feels from the loss of a child.

The mother of Edgar Guerra-Guzman, a 16-year-old Larkin High School student who was stabbed and killed during the attempted robbery of his backpack last May 2010 in an Elgin park, did her best Thursday in a Kane County courtroom.

“I felt an indescribable, tearing pain. I had lost my son and with him my soul was disappearing, too. I have not been the same since that moment on,” Maria Guerra said in tearfully describing her reaction when doctors told her Edgar was dead from a stab wound to the heart. “There are days that I don’t even want to get up and go out. I can no longer look in the mirror because I see that sadness in my eyes.”

Joshua Dunbar, 20, of the 600 block of Margaret Place, Elgin, was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for Guerra-Guzman’s killing.

Dunbar, who was 19 at the time of attack, was convicted in February of murder in the commission of a felony — in this case attempted armed robbery.

Dunbar, who must serve 100 percent of the sentence, faced up to 60 years in prison.

Judge Timothy Sheldon noted that Dunbar was an illiterate ninth-grade dropout who first smoked marijuana when he was 7 and overall didn’t have much guidance from his parents.

“It was a senseless waste of a life. There was no logical reason for this,” Sheldon said. “It was a brutal stabbing for absolutely no reason whatsoever.”

During a videotaped confession played at the trial, Dunbar said he and another guy went to the store to buy cigarettes, scuffled with men over a backpack at a park and that he “didn’t mean to stab” the victim.

Kane County Prosecutor Greg Sams argued for a 35- to 40-year prison term for Dunbar, saying it would be justice for the family.

Edgar’s brother Oscar, told of how he and Edgar fought off two attackers in a park, but when they went to leave Edgar collapsed and died in his arms.

Edgar’s father, Jose Guzman, also described the emotional and financial toll his son’s murder has had on the family.

Neither Dunbar, nor his parents, addressed the court or asked for mercy.

That task was left up to defense attorney John Paul Carroll, who asked for the minimum 20-year sentence.

“Was this planned or was it something that sprung out of stupidity? There is mitigation,” Carroll argued before Sheldon. “He told police about his involvement. That’s why he was convicted.”

Christopher Peralta, 17, of the 200 block of Crystal Street, Elgin, also faces murder charges, along with armed robbery and robbery. He is due in court on May 12 and a trial date has not been set.