Addison man pleads guilty to ‘09 shooting

An Addison man faces up to 30 years in prison after admitting in court Monday to shooting a man in 2009 after the victim failed to repay a $550 loan, prosecutors said.

Martin Tapia-Aguilar, 26, pleaded guilty in DuPage County court to aggravated battery with a firearm stemming from the Feb. 3, 2009, shooting on the 400 block of South Addison Road in Addison.

The victim, then 28, testified at a hearing in May 2009 that Tapia-Aguilar surprised him about 7 p.m. outside a store where he’d stopped to buy peanuts, then forced him into a van waiting nearby with two other armed men inside. He said the defendant was upset about a $550 debt and insisted he “needed his money.”

The Addison man identified Tapia-Aguilar as the man who shot him in the left arm and chest at point-blank range after he tried to escape. The victim was released from the hospital three days later, after doctors determined the bullets did not strike any vital organs.

Tapia-Aguilar had been scheduled to stand trial this week on charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery and aggravated unlawful discharge of a firearm. In exchange for his guilty plea to aggravated battery Monday, prosecutors dismissed the remaining charges.

Tapia-Aguilar faces up to 30 years in prison at sentencing April 12 in front of Judge Kathryn Creswell, the state’s attorneys’ office said. By law, he must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence.