Gang leader man gets life in prison for 2017 double murder at Aurora bar
An Oswego man who police say is a gang leader was sentenced Tuesday to natural life in prison for the March 2017 murders of two people in Aurora.
Serafin A. Castellanos, 42, was also sentenced to 45 years for attempted murder.
"You had a target in mind when you went to the bar that night," Kane County Judge Alice Tracy said to Castellanos, referring to security video footage of the shooting outside La Flama de Oro restaurant and bar at 746 S. Lincoln Ave. "It looked to me like you could have killed everybody on that street if you had had better aim."
In December, a jury convicted Castellanos of two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of 35-year-old Jermaine Taylor and 57-year-old Anselmo Fernandez. He was convicted of attempted murder for shooting a third person in the face.
The shooting happened around 1 a.m. March 10, 2017. Authorities said Castellanos was in a vehicle that circled the block several times and targeted Taylor.
After hitting Taylor, Castellanos fled on Simms Street and then turned and fired at least eight more shots at the bar's door as patrons were leaving. That's when Fernandez was hit.
Tracy had to sentence Castellanos to natural life because the crime involved killing more than one person.
Castellanos' attorney argued the sentencing law violates the Illinois constitution. He also said the judge did not need to sentence Castellanos on the attempted murder conviction.
But Bill Engerman, assistant state's attorney, requested the additional sentence.
Castellanos has been in custody at the Kane County jail since his arrest in January 2018.
On Tuesday, Aurora police investigator Timothy Young said Castellanos has been in the department's gang database since he admitted to being in a gang in 1994.
Young said Castellanos is the leader of a gang that has members in Aurora, Rockford, Elgin and Joliet.
Another police officer testified that in October 2017, Castellanos posted a video on Facebook mocking the deaths of two rival gang members in a crash that he survived. The crash happened during a chase involving Castellanos and the rivals. Both of their vehicles hit a truck on Orchard Road near I-88.
Castellanos lived on the 100 block of Eisenhower Lane in Oswego.