Thread: Berwyn man sentenced to 60 years in murder

Berwyn man sentenced to 60 years in murder of Hawthorne horse groomer
Hawthorne groomer shot after bar quarrel
By Victoria Pierce | Special to the Tribune
May 13, 2008
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Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo Print Reprints Text size: A Cook County judge sentenced a Berwyn man Monday to 60 years in prison for the murder of a Hawthorne Race Course horse groomer outside a Cicero bar more than two years ago.

Roberto Velazquez, 36, did not react when Associate Judge Gregory Ginex handed down the sentence at the Maybrook courthouse in Maywood.

Velazquez maintained his innocence Monday and said it was his brother who shot and killed Jesus Escalante-Mendoza, 33, outside the Yellow House bar in the 3600 block of Laramie Avenue on Feb. 27, 2006. His brother was not charged in the shooting and did not testify at Velazquez's January trial.

"I continue pleading innocent because my brother was the one who shot. I didn't shoot," Velazquez said through a Spanish interpreter.




According to testimony during the trial, Escalante-Mendoza and his brother, who worked as grooms at the Hawthorne racetrack on the Cicero-Stickney border, went to the bar together that night. His brother allegedly wanted to buy cocaine and approached Velazquez, who was also at the bar, with his own brother.

The two men argued, and after the Escalante-Mendoza brothers left, they were followed by a man dressed all in white—as Velazquez usually dressed—who fired three or four shots into the driver's side of the van where Jesus Escalante-Mendoza was sitting.

Velazquez was arrested the next night in New Jersey.

Velazquez does not have a felony record but is an illegal immigrant who has been deported from the United States twice, in 1992 and 2004. His attorney, Tim Grace, said his client crossed into the U.S. illegally to find work and improve his life.
But Assistant State's Atty. Kelly Coakley said Velazquez has no regard for the laws of this country. He entered illegally three times and has now killed a man, she said.

All of Velazquez's relatives live in Mexico, and his girlfriend did not attend the sentencing hearing.

Escalante-Mendoza's daughter, Gemma Escalante, attended the trial but could not attend the sentencing. She wrote a victim-impact statement, saying the family is still stunned that "there are people with so much anger in their heart that they would kill another person."

"My father did not deserve to die like that," she wrote.

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