Former Prospect Heights man guilty of 1994 murder

Cook County Circuit Court Judge John Scotillo cut to the chase when he pronounced former Prospect Heights resident Moises Bahena guilty of second-degree murder in the Christmas Day 1994 shooting of Wenceslao Gonzalez.

“It's hard to reconstruct events that happened 16 years ago,” Scotillo said Wednesday afternoon following closing arguments from the defense and prosecution.

“It's even harder when witnesses aren't forthcoming,” said Scotillo, referring to admissions from witnesses that they had been drinking that night.

In spite of the sometimes-foggy testimony that dominated the bench trial, Scotillo offered a clear-cut version of the events that led up to the death of the 23-year-old victim, who lived in the same Piper Lane apartment complex as Bahena, 62. Scotillo described the series of confrontation between friends and relatives of Gonzalez and friends and relatives of Bahena, which began the evening of Dec. 24, 1994, and concluded with Bahena shooting Gonzalez (also known as “El Toro”) six times early the next day. Both defense and prosecution witnesses described physical altercations in which they claimed they were struck or verbally harassed.

Witnesses on both sides also insisted the men involved in the disputes wanted to simply talk in order to diffuse the situation, claims which Scotillo found dubious.

In his closing argument, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Andy Dalkin reminded the court that none of the witnesses reported seeing Gonzalez carrying a weapon. But they did report seeing Bahena carrying his rifle.

“(Bahena) had over 15 years to come up with some sort of story to excuse his actions,” said Dalkin, referring to Bahena's claim that he acted in self-defense.

Instead of self defense, Dalkin contended, it was “a hunting expedition.”

“He went on a hunting trip looking for El Toro. The defendant waited for Toro to come into the courtyard and he ambushed him,” Dalkin said, adding that Bahena's flight to Mexico following the murder was evidence of his guilt.

Moreover, tempers had apparently cooled by the time of the shooting, which contradicts Bahena's statement that he felt compelled to shoot Gonzalez to protect himself and others, Dalkin said after reminding the court that no witnesses corroborated defense claims that Gonzalez had a knife.

“There's no justification of any kind,” Dalkin said. “The defendant brought a gun to a fist fight. There's no evidence the defendant brought a gun to a knife fight.”

Defense attorney Ed Edens said the facts were not as simple as Dalkin described. Insisting that his client acted in self-defense, Edens suggested that Bahena served as peacemaker during the preceding altercations. Edens also stated that Bahena retrieved his rifle only after he heard one of Gonzalez's relatives say, “Toro, go get the .38,” and saw Gonzalez leave, presumably to obtain a weapon.

“It's clear my client knew he did wrong,” Edens said of Bahena's flight to Mexico. Yet, Edens insisted Bahena acted to protect himself and his family.

“My client has regretted this from the instant it happened,” Edens said.

Scotillo set Bahena's sentencing for Jan. 28. Under sentencing guidelines in place in 1994, Bahena could face a sentence of four to 15 years in prison, compared to a maximum of 20 years if the crime was committed today.