Joliet man not guilty in ‘07 Addison murder

A Joliet man was acquitted by a DuPage County judge Friday of murdering an Itasca factory worker who was mistakenly slain in a September 2007 gang shooting in Addison.

“I can’t say I didn’t see it coming,” the defendant, Antonio Aguilar Jr., said after being found not guilty. “I knew from day one I was not guilty. I knew I didn’t do it.” Aguilar was one of two men charged in the Sept. 15, 2007, shooting death of 22-year-old Lorenzo Salazar-Cortez. Co-defendant Robert Meza, also of Joliet, was convicted in 2009 of his role in the murder and sentenced to 45 years in prison.

In delivering Friday’s verdict, DuPage County Judge George Bakalis cited a lack of evidence tying Aguilar to the killing, although he said the state proved its allegation that Aguilar was then a member of a street gang responsible for the victim’s death.

Bakalis noted the prosecution’s case suffered a “serious loss” last June when Meza refused to testify about Aguilar’s alleged involvement.

“The court cannot decide this case on a gut feeling,” he said. “It is no help to speculate the defendant may have killed the victim.”

Prosecutors said Salazar-Cortez, a bystander with no gang affiliations, was shot through a window about 5 a.m. at a friend’s apartment on the 300 block of Dale Street in Addison’s Highview Park neighborhood. They said Meza and the gunman intended to shoot at rival gang members in a residence next door, but mistakenly opened fire on the other address.

Salazar-Cortez, who lived in Berkeley but worked at a factory in nearby Itasca, was shot four times in the back. While Meza did not fire the weapon that killed him, he was found guilty of murder under an Illinois law that holds all participants in the commissioning of an offense accountable when it results in murder.

Among the evidence presented against Aguilar was the testimony of a man who said Aguilar told him he and Meza were going to Addison the morning of the murder to kill a rival gang member. Authorities also introduced recordings in which Aguilar discussed the crime, but Bakalis said the statement did not make clear whether Aguilar actually participated or was just a member of the gang that carried out the killing.

The judge also said the friend’s testimony that Aguilar told him of a planned killing was “suspect,” as the version contradicted other evidence and surfaced only after the police threatened to charge him in the case as well.

“Unfortunately for the state, there is no physical evidence tying the defendant to the crime,” Bakalis said.

Aguilar’s attorney, Bradley Harris, said his client was a gang member for a few months but has since left that life and now works as an interior painter. Prosecutors said he remains charged with aggravated battery in an unrelated case, which is pending.

Meza, 23, is serving his sentence at Menard Correctional Center, according to state records. On Thursday, he is scheduled to again stand trial in DuPage on contempt of court charges for refusing to testify in Aguilar’s case.