10-year sentence for 2000 Elgin murder upsets family

Matthew Kimble’s family waited more than 11 years for his killer to be brought to justice.

Monday’s sentencing hearing for Roberto Vences fell woefully short of what they’d hoped for.

Kane County Judge Timothy Sheldon gave a 10-year sentence to the 29-year-old Vences, who spent nine years hiding out in Mexico at his family’s ranch after being charged with shooting 19-year-old Kimble through the heart at an Elgin underage drinking party on April 9, 2000.

But the reality is Vences will be a free man in about 2½ years.

Vences pleaded guilty in September to second-degree murder, a crime that carried a top sentence of 20 years.

But under state law, the 10-year sentence can be halved for good behavior and Vences already will get credit for about 2½ years spent in the Kane County jail since he was brought back from Veracruz, Mexico, in spring 2009.

Parents and relatives of Kimble, many of whom traveled from Texas for the hearing, angrily left the courtroom with tears in their eyes and declined to comment afterward.

Sheldon noted that Vences, who was 17 at the time of the murder, also had a wife and child, planned to use his time behind bars to educate himself and help others and was on the road toward rehabilitation.

“The court’s job is not to soothe (the Kimbles’) pain. The courts job is to attempt to do justice,” Sheldon said.

Sheldon also sentenced Vences to six years for aggravated battery with a firearm. This sentence will be served at the same time as the murder charge; Vences, a reputed gang member, must serve 85 percent of the six years, which translates to five years and one month.

Defense attorney Timothy Mahoney argued for a six- to eight-year sentence and said if the case went to trial, Vence would have argued self-defense in that he was surrounded by 10 people after a fight broke out at the party in the 200 block of Illinois Avenue.

“He accepted responsibility (with the guilty plea). That should not be lost,” Mahoney said.

Vences did not address the court or apologize to Kimble’s family, but he did write a letter to Sheldon.

Kimble’s father, Richard, asked Sheldon for the maximum sentence, which was 30 years on the gun charge. Another person was shot three times by Vences at the party, but survived.

Kimble’s mother, Terry, tearfully described how the death of her oldest child sent her three other kids into a downward spiral. Matthew’s younger siblings used drugs to ease their pain and were taunted by other gang members and that the family eventually relocated to Texas in 2002.

“This crime broke our family into little pieces. It’s taken years to start putting them back together again,” Terry Kimble said. “We spend most of our days trying to pretend things are all right, but in our hearts we know we’re just fooling ourselves. It’s been 11 years, but it will be hard every day until I am able to be with him (again).”

Assistant State’s Attorney Pam Monaco argued for a significant prison term, pointing to the time and resources used by Elgin police and federal authorities to bring Vences, a former Gilberts resident, back to Kane County.

“After the shooting, he took off. He was a coward. He left the United States,” said Monaco, who would not comment afterward. “He took an innocent life.”

Vences originally was charged with first-degree murder, a crime that carries a 20- to 60-year sentence. If convicted, the defendant must serve 100 percent of it as well.

Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon defended his office’s decision to accept a guilty plea on a lesser charge.

“No sentence can be compared to the loss of Matthew Kimball’s life and the pain his family still suffers. Every decision we made in this case came after consultation with the Kimball family and the Elgin police department, and we hope that the sentence imposed by Judge Sheldon today provides some sense of justice for the Kimball family,” McMahon said in an email.