A Chicago man charged with a 2007 Plainfield murder went to bed Thursday night with his fate in the hands of the jury. On Friday afternoon, that jury found him guilty of first-degree murder.
The jury returned about 2 p.m. and convicted Ricardo Gutierrez, 23, of first-degree murder.
Gutierrez gunned down Javier Barrios in October 2007. Barrios was 18 when he was killed.
Barrios, a Romeoville resident, was first shot by his ex-girlfriend, 24-year-old Gabriela Escutia, police said.
Escutia allegedly set up a rendezvous with Barrios in a field on Route 59 near a Meijer service station. Gutierrez reportedly joined her for the meeting.
Guttierez's attorneys, Jeff Tomczak and Paul Napolski, said their client shot Barrios in self-defense, and that Escutia lived in fear of her former boyfriend.
Escutia and Barrios reportedly had a romantic liaison that she fit in between relationships with Gutierrez, whom she met before she moved to Plainfield from Chicago.
Escutia and Barrios linked up while Gutierrez was incarcerated, she reportedly told police, but the relationship soured.
Just two and a half weeks before the killing, Escutia obtained an order of protection against Barrios. In her petition for the order she claimed the Romeoville man pushed her down, slapped her, and broke her car window and a headlight. Escutia also accused Barrios of harassing her and "calling and leaving messages."
On the night of the killing, Tomczak said, Barrios called Escutia and demanded she meet with him.
"He said to her, 'If you don't meet me, you know what I'm going to do to your daughter,'" Tomczak said.
Escutia has confessed to shooting Barrios as he sat in his car, according to a complaint for a search warrant. After firing once, the complaint said, the gun jammed.
Escutia cleared the gun but Gutierrez took it from her and shot Barrios twice more, the complaint said. Gutierrez told police he tossed the gun away on Interstate 55 after shooting Barrios, the complaint said, but Escutia believed he held on to it and brought it back to his home in Chicago.
Escutia and Gutierrez were captured at the residence in Chicago. A search of the home failed to turn up the handgun.
Escutia's case remains pending.
Gutierrez faces 45 to 60 years in prison.