Prosecutors: Suspect wrote about murder in diary

Prosecutors say a man recently apprehended in a 1997 murder near Downers Grove wrote about the killing in his diary.

The diary belonging to Jose Alfredo Ruvalcaba-Quezada was located in 1999 as police searched his Utah home for evidence in an unrelated rape case, Assistant State's Attorney Steven Knight said in court Friday.

Knight said the defendant wrote he was given “good pay” to kill a man — identified by police as 39-year-old Jose J. Ortiz — and described shooting the victim with a 9 mm firearm as he left home for work.

“He had his lunchbox in his hand but he never made it,” one entry read, according to prosecutors.

DuPage County Judge George Bakalis ordered Ruvalcaba-Quezada held without bail after prosecutors introduced the diary and other evidence. Bail was previously set at $5 million.

Authorities said the writings did not immediately lead to charges in the murder because local investigators didn't learn of them until after he was identified as a suspect in 2008. The entry read in court did not identify the victim by name or the location of the murder.

Prosecutors said Ruvalcaba-Quezada, formerly of the Joliet area, was about 18 years old when he fatally shot Ortiz on Dec. 29, 1997, as the married father of five walked from his Saylor Street home in unincorporated DuPage County to his car. The killer emerged from behind a garage and shot Ortiz in the chest about 6:30 a.m., according to the charges.

After the murder, Ruvalcaba-Quezada fled Illinois and was subsequently deported after his arrest in Utah. He sneaked back into the U.S. in 2003 and has since lived with his wife in South Carolina under the alias Victor Lopez, authorities said.

Prosecutors charged the defendant in 2008 but did not locate him until his drunken driving arrest last month in Lugoff, S.C.

Ruvalcaba-Quezada was identified through fingerprints on 9 mm bullets and shell casings found at the scene of Ortiz's murder more than 14 years ago, and he confessed in recorded interviews with sheriff's investigators, prosecutors said.

Knight said seven witnesses who recently testified before a grand jury described how the defendant was seen with a gun before the killing and how he had “money, jewelry and new clothes” afterward.

“The defendant was crystal clear in his videotaped statements last month that the only reason he did it was for the money,” Knight said, calling the slaying an “utterly senseless act of violence.”

Prosecutors said they would seek an extended term of up to life in prison if Ruvalcaba-Quezada is convicted. The defendant shook his head several times during Friday's hearing. His arraignment is set for Feb. 17.