A second suspect has been charged after prosecutors say he paid a fellow illegal immigrant $1,200 to shoot and kill another man in Beach Park as part of retaliation for the killings of his family members in Mexico.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Jeffrey Facklam said Oscar Ochoa-Tello, 46, of Beach Park, was sitting inside his vehicle in the driveway of his home in the 38400 block of North Sheridan Road in Beach Park on November 5.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said Ochoa-Tello was shot around 5:20 a.m. as his car was warming up and he was about to leave for work.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office was notified about the shooting a short time later after Ochoa-Tello was dropped off at Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan.
Ochoa-Tello was in critical condition and a medical helicopter was called to Vista Medical Center East to transfer him to Advocate Condell Medical Center, which is a Level 1 trauma center, Covelli said.
The victim remained hospitalized in the intensive care unit in extremely critical condition and died on November 8 from his four gunshot wounds.
Detectives recovered projectiles at the scene. They also spoke with Ochoa-Tello’s son.
The son heard the gunshots and saw his father had been shot, Facklam said. He rushed his father to the hospital by car.
Ochoa-Tello’s son told investigators that he had gone outside the prior morning and noticed a suspicious Saturn parked near his home.
The son followed the vehicle and took photos of the car. Detectives identified the car from the photos and used the Flock Safety license plate reader network, which confirmed the vehicle was in the area again around the time of the shooting.
Facklam said Cristian N. Ruvalcava Torres, 28, of Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, was identified as the owner of the vehicle. He also has an alias last name of Ruval-Cavatorres.
Detectives notified area law enforcement that the vehicle was used in the homicide.
Covelli said the Mount Pleasant Police Department located Ruvalcava Torres operating a different vehicle.
Police conducted a traffic stop and took Ruval-Cavatorres into custody for driving on a suspended license.
Lake County sheriff’s detectives traveled to Wisconsin and interviewed Ruvalcava Torres.
Ruvalcava Torres admitted he was in the Saturn, exited the car and approached Ochoa-Tello after spotting the victim leaving his home to get into his car, Facklam said.
Ruvalcava Torres said he fired multiple shots at Ochoa-Tello. The suspect also told detectives where they could find the Saturn and the murder weapon.
Search warrants were conducted and the Saturn was found in a barn, Facklam said. A revolver was also located in the area and that type of weapon aligns with the fact that no shell casings were recovered at the shooting scene.
They also recovered a telephone that Ruvalcava Torres likely used to communicate with the person who hired him to commit the murder, Covelli said.
Facklam said Ruvalcava Torres told detectives that he was hired by Francisco Gutierrez, 43, of Waukegan, to kill Ochoa-Tello.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Elizabeth Cannon said Gutierrez gave the revolver to Ruvalcava Torres.
Gutierrez was interviewed as part of the investigation and told detectives that Ochoa-Tello was involved in the death of Gutierrez’s brother and nephew in Mexico in 2017, Cannon said.
Gutierrez, who is from La Luz, Michoacan in Mexico, said he came to the United States due to the crime in his rancho in Mexico involving the cartel.
Cannon said that after Gutierrez gave the murder weapon to Ruvalcava Torres two weeks prior to the killing, Ruvalcava Torres test-fired the gun under Gutierrez’s direction and gave him additional ammunition the next day to ensure the gun was fully loaded.
Ruvalcava Torres admitted he drove to the area where Ochoa-Tello lived on November 3 and November 4 but did not go through with the shooting at those times before returning on November 5 to carry out the hit.
After Ruvalcava Torres failed to carry out the murder on the first two days, he went back to Gutierrez, who asked him both times if he had gone through with the killing, Cannon said.
Gutierrez told Ruvalcava Torres that if he could not do it, then he had another person ready to do it instead, Cannon said.
Ruvalcava Torres told Gutierrez that he would go through with it the next day because he really needed the money.
Ruvalcava Torres was given a photo of Ochoa-Tello so he knew who to kill, Facklam said.
Cannon said Gutierrez gave Ruvalcava Torres $1,200 in cash after the murder was carried out. Ruvalcava Torres said he needed the money for rent and other bills.
Ruvalcava Torres was initially held in the Racine County, Wisconsin, Jail following his arrest on a federal hold because he has a current pending removal order.
The man, who is a Mexican national, has prior inadmissible alien charges from 2019 and again this year, Facklam said.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took custody of him and transported him to the Lake County Jail last week.
“The defendant’s actions in this case… to agree to murder someone he doesn’t know for, frankly, a nominal sum of money, shocks the conscience and is such a blatant disregard of our laws,” Facklam said.
The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office initially approved charges against Ruvalcava Torres for attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated discharge of a firearm.
After the victim died in the hospital, the state’s attorney’s office early last week filed upgraded charges of three counts of first-degree murder, a Class M felony.
The state’s attorney’s office also filed a petition to detain Ruvalcava Torres pending trial, calling him a real and present danger to the community and arguing he is also a willful flight risk.
Lake County Judge Michael Nerheim granted the petition during a detention hearing last Wednesday and noted that the offense was a “pre-planned ambush event” with Ruvalcava Torres giving a full admission to the crime.
The judge also said Ruvalcava Torres had multiple opportunities not to go through with the murder but eventually did so anyway.
Nerheim said that while Ruvalcava Torres has minimal criminal history in the United States, his illegal status in the country shows he is a willful flight risk.
A public defender representing Ruvalcava Torres made no arguments in court, only saying that his client denies the allegations and maintains his innocence.
Covelli said detectives located Gutierrez in the 1600 block of Park Avenue in North Chicago around 1:30 p.m. on November 6. A traffic stop was conducted for a turn signal violation.
Halcomb said Gutierrez did not have a valid driver’s license and identified himself as “Fernando Castillo Vazquez” while providing officers with a Mexican voter registration card.
He was transported to the sheriff’s office to be fingerprinted, which confirmed he provided a false name, Halcomb said.
Gutierrez was arrested and has been charged with obstructing justice, a Class 4 felony, for providing the false name.
Gutierrez has not been charged with murder yet as investigators are continuing to gather additional evidence in the case.
Nerheim also granted a petition to detain Gutierrez that was filed by the state’s attorney’s office, which argued he poses a danger to the community and is a willful flight risk.
Gutierrez evaded prosecution in three pending criminal cases, Halcomb said, adding that Gutierrez also has family ties in Mexico, has had the resources and ability to avoid an active warrant for almost two decades and has been removed from the United States at least once.
Two of the three pending criminal cases against Gutierrez involve charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon for two separate attacks that left victims injured in Waukegan in 2016 and 2021.
Attorney Julio Argueta said his client, Gutierrez, is presumed innocent in his pending cases and intends to challenge them.
“Senseless acts of violence have no place in our society. I am extraordinarily proud of the hard work of all our staff involved in this investigation,” Lake County Sheriff John D. Idleburg said.
“Our detectives swiftly uncovered a significant amount of evidence that led them to the offender, as well as to identifying and arresting the individual who ordered the shooting. We will continue to hold relentlessly violent offenders accountable,” Idleburg said.
Gutierrez and Ruvalcava Torres remain held in the Lake County Jail.
Gutierrez is scheduled to appear in court again on December 11 for a preliminary hearing and Ruvalcava Torres is scheduled to appear in court again on December 9 for a preliminary hearing.