Elgin man gets 28 years for 'heinous' attack

Christina Espinosa is a victim. But she is not vindictive.

Doused in rubbing alcohol and afire by her now ex-husband Jose Marquez last October at their Elgin home, she suffered burns over 27 percent of her body and spent more than two weeks in Maywood's Loyola Medical Center burn unit. Espinosa will bear the scars on her chest, arms and hands the rest of her life. She and her daughter, who witnessed part of the attack on her mother, will bear the emotional scars just as long.

Espinosa's now 13-year-old daughter urged her mother to forgive Marquez, saying "If you don't forgive him, your heart will be filled with hate."

Espinosa forgave. But she is still afraid.

"I am afraid of him. I am afraid that he will hurt me again if he gets the chance," Espinosa wrote in a victim impact statement read by Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Shilpa Patel during Marquez's sentencing hearing Friday in a Rolling Meadows courtroom.

Espinosa's injuries forced her to leave her job at Woodstock's Claussen Pickle Co., where she had been employed for 15 years. She wears compression garments on her arms, chest and hands 23 hours a day and undergoes physical therapy and counseling. But she still suffers from nightmares and requires assistance for personal care.

She worries about paying her mortgage and repaying loans. But mostly she worries that her ex-husband's brothers may try to exact vengeance on her and her family.

"More than anything I worry about the future and what will happen to my daughter," wrote Espinosa.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge James Etchingham helped allay some of her fears, imposing a lengthy sentence on Marquez, 34, convicted in June of heinous battery and aggravated domestic battery.

Calling the attack on Espinosa repugnant, vile, merciless, depraved and sick, Etchingham sentenced Marquez to a total of 28 years in prison 23 for heinous battery and five years for aggravated domestic battery. He must complete 85 percent of the consecutive sentences before he is eligible for parole.

"The victim, for so long as she is on the face of this earth, will be reminded of the atrocity that was perpetrated on her," Etchingham said.

Almost as disturbing, Etchingham said, is that the couple's daughter witnessed her father choking her mother before he set her on fire. While applauding the courage of the girl, who testified for the prosecution during her father's trial, he worried about the impact witnessing the incident will have on her.

"She will always be reminded of the potential atrocity that can be committed by another human being," Etchingham said.

Prosecutors introduced evidence of Marquez's convictions for aggravated battery and battery in 1994 and 1996; delivery of a controlled substance in 1993 and theft in 1997. His attorney David Corbett informed the court that Marquez received those convictions as a teenager. Marquez also has misdemeanor convictions for resisting a peace officer and DUI from 2004 and 2005.

Marquez expressed the "deepest measure of remorse" for harming his wife and daughter and asked for their forgiveness. He claimed he suffered psychological abuse as a child and admitted to longtime alcoholism which he says he has finally acknowledged.

"I lived a life of denial because I didn't think I had a problem," Marquez said, as his mother sobbed.

Corroborating the mental abuse Marquez said he suffered, his mother described him as a hard worker who cared for his disabled father and helped support her.

"These aren't excuses but that was his reality," she said.