fbpx

Tag: sentencing

A man from Aurora was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman and beating a pregnant woman who witnessed the assault.

In 2020, an Aurora man was convicted of sexually assaulting one person and assaulting a pregnant woman who witnessed the attack.

According to the Kane County state’s attorney’s office, Francisco L. Manriquez, 53, was found guilty Monday of aggravated criminal sexual assault, criminal sexual assault, and aggravated battery. He has been imprisoned in Kane County since February 2020, when a judge set his bail at $1 million.

Prosecutors claim Manriquez sexually assaulted the first victim on February 5, 2020. According to prosecutors, he then beat another woman, who was seven months pregnant, when she walked in and witnessed the sexual assault.

“This defendant’s actions were the ultimate betrayal of trust. Not once did he think of the trauma he was forcing on both victims. These victims, by contrast, showed amazing courage by confronting this defendant,” Assistant State’s Attorney Amanda Busljeta said in a statement.

Prosecutors said Manriquez faces between 12 and 50 years in prison and must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 31.

0

Man accepts a four-year prison sentence in the death of Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, whose baby was removed from her womb.

A man accepted a plea deal on Monday for his role in the murder of Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, whose baby was removed from her womb in April 2019 by a woman from the Southwest Side who wanted to claim it as her own.

Piotr Bobak, 44, accepted a four-year sentence on a lesser charge of obstructing justice. He was initially charged with obstructing justice and concealing a homicide.

“I regret every minute it of it all,” Bobak said at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse during a hearing. He apologized to the victims’ families and stated that he hopes to make amends with them one day.

Bobak claimed that the two women charged in the case, Bobak’s then-girlfriend Clarisa Figueroa and her daughter Desiree Figueroa, misled him. Their cases are still being heard.

Judge Peggy Chimpas noted that Bobak has already served nearly three and a half years in Cook County Jail and will be released in less than four months. He will be on parole for six months after his release.

According to prosecutors, Bobak cleaned up the murder scene and claimed the infant was his son in order to solicit charitable donations. However, Bobak’s lawyer claimed that he was unaware of the murder plot and had been duped by the Figueroas.

“Peter was used by them,” attorney Jeff Steinback said in court on Monday.

According to the plea agreement, Bobak met Clarisa Figueroa at a Joliet addiction clinic. According to the agreement, Figueroa lied to Bobak about being pregnant with his child, and he believed her.

According to Bobak’s lawyer, Clarisa Figueroa targeted him because he wanted to start a family of his own. “He was the perfect tool for Clarisa,” Steinback explained.

Clarisa Figueroa and her daughter are accused of strangling the 19-year-old pregnant Ochoa-Lopez and severing her unborn child. Yovanny Jadiel Lopez, the baby, died months later, in June 2019.

According to prosecutors, Clarisa Figueroa’s alleged murder plot began in late 2018 when she claimed to be pregnant. Even though she wasn’t expecting a child, she posted pictures of ultrasounds online.

The charade came to an end in April of 2019 when she lured Ochoa-Lopez to her Scottsdale neighborhood home, strangled her, and cut her baby from her womb with the help of her 24-year-old daughter.

Prosecutors said Marlen Ochoa-Lopez was responding to a Facebook ad for free baby clothes.

Clarisa Figueroa and Desiree Figuero have pleaded not guilty to a 27-count indictment that includes first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery of a child, and body dismemberment.

0

An Orland Park man was sentenced in a 2017 Beecher crash that killed a pregnant woman and three children.

A young pregnant mother and her three young children were killed in a terrible car accident in Beecher, Illinois.

Sean Woulfe, 30, of Orland Park, pleaded guilty to five counts of reckless homicide last year after the judge in his trial declared a mistrial.

He was sentenced to two years in prison for each death on Wednesday, to be served concurrently.

Lindsey Schmidt, 29, was killed in an August 2017 crash on a quiet road in Beecher, along with her unborn child and her three sons, ages 1, 4, and 7.

Woulfe was allegedly going more than 80 mph when his pickup ran a stop sign and collided with the family’s Subaru Outback on their way to vacation bible school.

0

The fentanyl dealer known as ‘Drug Llama’ wishes to be released from federal custody.

Melissa Scanlan, the “Drug Llama” fentanyl dealer convicted in Illinois, is attempting to get out of prison.

Scanlan is serving a 13-year sentence and is seeking compassionate release despite running a lucrative cartel-connected fentanyl business on the dark web.

Scanlan’s co-defendant was previously denied a similar compassionate release request, claiming that COVID was too dangerous to be held in prison.

According to federal prosecutors in Southern Illinois, where she was facing drug and money-laundering charges, the Drug Llama was moving 50,000 fentanyl pills over the dark web from her home in Southern California in 2018. Scanlan was five months pregnant when she was arrested and imprisoned.

Scanlan, as the I-Team first reported, sold the fentanyl that killed a 41-year-old woman in Southern California. Adrienne Wood, a Drug Llama regular, died of an overdose in September 2017.

Scanlan is now requesting compassionate release from a California prison. The specifics of her request are confidential due to a court order, but her co-defendant made a similar request, claiming that COVID made it too dangerous to remain in prison.

Federal records show only one current COVID case at the Victorville Medium Security facility in San Bernardino County, despite the Llama’s request for release.

“During COVID there was an explosion of filings by incarcerated defendants saying that because of COVID they should be released early because of the risks imposed but those numbers are already beginning to dwindle,” Gil Soffer explained.

Gil Soffer, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago and an ABC7 legal analyst, says the rush to release prisoners during the early days of the pandemic has subsided.

Federal data released tonight show 1,300 COVID prison releases in 2020 — nearly two-thirds of all granted compassionate freedom motions mention COVID; a figure that fell slightly in 2021 and appears to be falling in the latest figures.

“People are still playing the COVID card and they’re meeting with less and less success,” Soffer explained.

To respond to Scanlan’s request, federal prosecutors have until the end of the year, and no decision is expected until 2023. Scanlan’s attorney told the I-Team on Monday that he hasn’t spoken with her in a while and that she filed the motion for mercy on her own.

0

Up ↑

%d bloggers like this: