IL - Joliet Illegal Immigrant Guilty Of I&M Canal Rapes (update)
Miguel Luna, 37, of Joliet will be sentenced on July 16 by Will County Judge David Carlson.
By John Ferak, Patch Staff | May 16, 2018 5:58 pm ET | Updated May 17, 2018 12:45 pm ET
https://cdn20.patchcdn.com/users/229...06964-4212.jpg
JOLIET, IL - A dangerous man who was living in Joliet illegally was escorted into Will County Courtroom 405 on Wednesday afternoon under the careful eye of Will County Sheriff's deputies assigned to courtroom security. Utilizing the services of a courtroom interpreter, Miguel Luna, now 37, pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual assault for raping women on the I&M Canal path near Joliet. Judge David Carlson set sentencing for July 16. Luna lived in the 1400 block of Winifred Street in Joliet at the time of his crimes, according to the Will County State's Attorney's Office.
Luna has remained in the Will County jail since May 22, 2016. He is being held without any bail.
Will County State's Attorney spokesman Chuck Pelkie said Luna was accused of assaulting three women on the I&M trail, but charges in one of those case were dropped in exchange for his guilty plea. "The third victim, ... recently died, and the charges related to her case were dropped in exchange for his guilty plea in the other two cases," Pelkie said in a statement Thursday. "It is important to note that the investigation into the third victim's case is what led police to identify Luna as the attacker in all three sexual assaults."
According to prosecutors, Luna attacked his first victim on Sept. 6, 2015 between Brandon Road and Larkin Avenue. He jumped off a bike, tackled the woman from behind, dragged her into the woods, and tied her up. He raped his victim during the more than 90 minutes he held her captive, prosecutors said.
Then Luna struck again around 8 a.m. May 21, 2016. That victim was running along the Frontage Road near Interstate 55. That morning, Luna wore sunglasses, a ski mask, surgical gloves as he grabbed the woman from behind and put her into a choke hold, prosecutors say. Luna raped her under the I-55 viaduct.
Ultimately, Luna was captured as a result of a rape investigation involving a third woman. "The defendant, who also knew this woman's friend, tied up his victim and sexually assaulted her in a secluded area near Brandon Road. The victim's friend later identified Luna for police," prosecutors revealed Wednesday.
Luna's DNA also tied him to the first two rapes by the I&M path, according to prosecutors.
"Miguel Luna is in this country illegally. This ruthlessly violent sexual predator should never have had the opportunity to brutally prey upon these innocent young women," Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said in Wednesday's statement announcing the guilty plea.
https://cdn20.patchcdn.com/users/229...08735-8214.jpg
Miguel Luna 2016 mugshot
"He terrorized our community by repeatedly committing the most vicious sexual assaults against unsuspecting women in an historic area that people from throughout the region safely enjoy for recreation."
Glasgow praised Assistant State's Attorney Mary Fillipitch for obtaining the Joliet man's guilty plea.
Luna faces between 32 and 80 years in prison when he is sentenced two months from now.
https://patch.com/illinois/joliet/il...-m-canal-rapes
Man gets 80 years in prison for beating, raping two women along trail near Joliet
http://www.trbimg.com/img-5b774e10/t...ge/750/750x422
Miguel Luna, 37, of Joliet, is shown in a 2016 booking photo. (Will County sheriff)
Ted Slowik
August 20, 2018
A Will County judge sentenced a man who admitted beating and raping two women along the I&M Canal State Trail near Joliet to 80 years in prison Monday.
Judge David Carlson handed down the maximum sentence for Miguel C. Luna, 37, of Joliet. Luna is in the country illegally and was ordered deported by immigration authorities in 2012, Carlson said.
“You should not have been in this country,” Carlson told Luna. “The system let the victims down in this case.”
One of the women Luna admitted raping applauded when Carlson handed down the sentence.
Luna pleaded guilty in May to beating and sexually assaulting two women who were running on the trail near Rockdale and Channahon in 2015 and 2016. Luna confessed to raping a third woman who has since died. Prosecutors played in court a videotaped interview the third woman gave to investigators when Luna was arrested in May, 2016.
Prosecutors presented evidence that the early-morning attacks on women were premeditated. In a videotaped confession played in court, Luna admitted wearing surgical gloves, concealing his face and using a shirt to wipe blood off a victim’s arm to remove fingerprints.
“He did not want to be caught,” Assistant State’s Attorney Mary Fillipitch told Carlson when asking for the maximum sentence. “If anything, he’d become a more clever and crafty sexual predator if given the opportunity to do so.”
More coverage: Testimony reveals chilling details of public assaults by confessed serial rapist »
Luna faced 16 to 40 years on each of the two felony criminal sexual assault counts. Carlson ordered that Luna serve the sentences consecutively, serve at least 85 percent of the sentences and register as a sex offender if he is ever released from prison.
A Will County probation department officer on Monday resolved Carlson’s questions about Luna’s identity by explaining how the department corroborated various aliases Luna said he used.
Prior to being sentenced, Luna read to Carlson a statement in which he said he was traumatized by repeated childhood sexual abuse by family members.
“I realize now I needed professional help,” Luna said, adding that his family was poor. “I never had the means and now it’s too late because I’m facing a life sentence.”
Luna said he was “very sorry for the terrible things I’ve done” to the women he attacked.
“I realize I have destroyed their beautiful lives with my horrible actions,” he said.
Carlson said the “horrific” abuse that Luna said he suffered as a child does not excuse his actions as an adult.
“Nothing gives you the right to impart that hurt, that pain, that damage to anybody else,” Carlson said.
Carlson said he was disgusted by the “chilling” details of the attacks that each lasted about 90 minutes.
“The terror went on and on for these women,” Fillipitch said.
Carlson said he did not understand why Luna wasn’t deported in 2012 when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a fugitive warrant for his arrest.
“You were free to do these acts … whether through misguided political correctness or people who do not believe in laws or borders,” Carlson told Luna. “One thing I can do with the sentence is show that the laws we believe in here, maybe this won’t happen again, maybe that’s a little bit of closure.”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburb...821-story.html
