Aurora man gets 38 years in prison for 2005 beating murder
An Aurora man has been sentenced to 38 years in prison for beating a man to death 18 years ago.
Quinton C. Moore will begin the sentence once he finishes serving time for trying to murder another person in 2005.
Kane County Judge Elizabeth Flood announced the sentence Wednesday.
Flood found Moore, 41, guilty in March of three counts of first-degree murder in the September 2005 beating death of George Caro of Aurora.
Caro was 21 when members of an Aurora street gang were at a party in the 600 block of Lincoln Avenue. Several of them questioned whether Caro was a member of the gang and if he had cooperated with police in a murder investigation, according to a news release from the Kane County state's attorney's office.
Then Moore and five other men kicked him, punched him and beat him with a baseball bat. Caro died of blunt-force trauma; there were 22 injuries to his head and face and 16 to his upper body and arms, according to a medical examiner. Co-defendants Juan Vargas, Max M. Aguilar, Ruben Hernandez and Roman Lucio were convicted and sent to prison. Another man, Timothy Echols, was also charged. But the charge was dropped as part of a plea agreement for him to testify.
Moore is currently serving a 27-year sentence for attempted first-degree murder.
He will have to serve 100% of the Caro murder sentence.
The case was indicted in June 2007 as part of a cold-case investigation called "Operation First-Degree Burn." More than 30 men were indicted in 22 homicides investigated by the state's attorney, the Aurora Police Department, the FBI and the Kane County sheriff's office.
"This closes the book on Quinton Moore's long criminal career, ensuring that Aurora will be safer than it was when he roamed the streets. It took a long time for everyone responsible for George Caro's murder to be held accountable, which means many of the individuals who helped bring him justice have moved on or retired. Their work is not forgotten," Assistant State's Attorney Mark Stajdohar said in the release.
Moore's trial took so long because he was found unfit to stand trial at least twice in the Caro case and sent to the Chester Mental Health Center for treatment. He also appealed a judge's pretrial decision.
Moore remains on trial on charges he murdered Larry Postelwaite of Aurora and Sharon Paulette of St. Charles on Feb. 8, 2001, in Aurora, as they sat in a car. He had also been charged with killing Jorge Uriostigue of Aurora in the front yard of a home on Aug. 8, 2003, but prosecutors dropped that case.