Man pleads guilty, again, and gets 20 years for 2008 shooting of woman in Elgin
A West Chicago man who pleaded guilty to aggravated battery in 2010 for shooting a woman, then withdrew his plea, has pleaded guilty, again, to the attack and was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison.
Emmanuel E. Perez, 31, was facing charges of attempted murder for the October 2008 shooting of Briana Salinas in an alley just a few blocks away from the Elgin police station.
Salinas had taken her puppy outside around 1:20 a.m. She was shot five times and woke up from a coma three weeks later.
Perez pleaded guilty right before Salinas was about to testify, and he was sentenced to 24 years in prison.
But about a month later, he asked to withdraw his plea. When that was denied, Perez appealed the decision, and prosecutors admitted a mistake had been made during the plea.
The case was sent back to Kane County in 2013. Perez posted bail in 2014 and has been free since.
In the 2010 trial, police testified they found Salinas in a dark alley on the 200 block of Douglas Street after her brother called 911. Police arrested Perez about 10 minutes later.
They said they found a gun hidden nearby and a box of 21 bullets in a plastic grocery bag in a garbage bin. Authorities testified one of Perez's fingerprints was on the bag.
A prosecutor said during the 2010 trial that Perez had run-ins with the victim in the weeks before the shooting. He yelled, "I'm going to get you," and pointed his hand at her like a gun as he drove by her at a bus top several days beforehand.
With the new 20-year sentence, Perez will have to serve at least 50% of his sentence before being eligible for parole. He will get credit for the nearly six years he spent in the Kane County jail and a state prison.
He is scheduled to turn himself in on June 24.