Former Villa Park man receives 70-year sentence for stabbing murder of girlfriend

A former Villa Park man was sentenced Sept. 11 to 70 years in prison for the murder of Esmeralda DeLuna, 24, his live-in girlfriend and mother of their three children.

Marco-Antonio Rubio, 29, appeared at his sentencing hearing in front of DuPage County Judge Ann Celine O’Hallaren Walsh, who handed down the sentence.

On March 5, Rubio entered a guilty plea to one count of first-degree murder.

About 9:25 p.m. May 19, 2021, Villa Park police responded to a disturbance in the 300 block of North Princeton Drive. They heard crying and knocked on the door. Once inside, police found two girls between 3 and 6 years old and a boy about 1 year old, according to a DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office news release.

Authorities also discovered a trail of blood in the living room that led to the victim, who was lying in the kitchen with an eight-inch butcher knife in her leg and stab wounds to her torso. The victim, later identified as DeLuna, was taken to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead early the following morning, according to the release.

Authorities learned that on May 7, 2021, Rubio was served with an order of protection that required him to move out of the Princeton Drive residence. On May 19, 2021, Rubio violated the order of protection, went to the Princeton residence, broke in and stabbed DeLuna, according to the release.

Rubio fled after the murder, but was arrested early the following morning while walking in Villa Park.

“On May 19, 2021, three young children lost their mother, Esmeralda DeLuna, to domestic violence,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in the release. “[On Sept. 11], the children’s father, Marco Rubio, received a 70-year sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections for her brutal murder. While what essentially amounts to a life sentence behind bars cannot erase the vicious murder of a loving mother, perhaps Esmeralda’s surviving family and friends can find some measure of solace knowing justice was delivered in Esmeralda’s name.”

Rubio will be required to serve 100% of his sentence.