Woman pleads guilty to West Chicago murder where victim was stabbed, burned and run over

With two guilty pleas, a horrific West Chicago murder case has drawn closer to an end.

Tia Brewer, 21, pleaded guilty on Nov. 1 to first-degree murder and aggravated battery causing great bodily harm for the 2018 killing of Luis Guerrero.

And Jesus Jurado-Correa, 23, pleaded guilty that day to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder for supplying the gasoline used to set Guerrero on fire, according to DuPage County court records.

Brewer, Jurado-Correa, Francisco Alvarado, 24, and Saul Ruiz, 23, were charged with killing 18-year-old Guerrero on Aug. 14, 2018.

Guerrero was strangled with a belt, stabbed 16 times, set on fire, run over with an SUV, and left to die in a West Chicago field, authorities said.

The crime

Police said Brewer told them the attack was retribution because Guerrero, whom she had dated, had sexually assaulted her. But there was no report of a sexual assault, authorities said at a 2018 news conference.

Authorities said Alvarado and Brewer met Guerrero near the West Chicago Public Library. They were walking with him when they attacked him, strangling him and stabbing him before throwing his body into a Jeep Cherokee owned by Alvarado’s father.

They then drove Guerrero to a field along Joliet Street, across the road from Alvarado’s house. Correa brought them a water bottle filled with gasoline, and they used it to start the fire on the victim.

Correa then left. He allegedly told police he “wanted nothing to do with” what Alvarado and Brewer were doing, and he saw the flames ignite in his rearview mirror as he drove away.

Authorities said Alvarado and Brewer were linked romantically.

Brewer told police she and Alvarado had put Guerrero in a fire pit and started him on fire, but that he got up and started running, according to police. They ran him over with the Jeep, reignited him, put him back in the pit to die and put an overturned picnic table over him, police said she told them.

But Alvarado told police he was meeting with Guerrero to buy a phone and that when Guerrero opened a knife, the men began fighting, and Alvarado stabbed Guerrero, police said.

Besides the stab wounds to his neck and back, Guerrero had a broken pelvis, arm and shoulder.

Firefighters found the body 12 hours later when they went to the field for a training exercise.

Authorities said Correa was paid $200 for helping Alvarado and Brewer burn the body and helping them prepare to flee the area. When police found the couple at a downtown Chicago hotel, they had some of the victim’s belongings, plus a bloody backpack and a bloody screwdriver, authorities said.

Sentences

Alvarado pleaded guilty in November 2022 to first-degree murder and aggravated battery -- causing great bodily harm.

Ruiz pleaded guilty on Sept. 29 to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder for sending a message to Guerrero to lure him to the scene of the murder, according to court records. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and had to serve at least 50%. Since he was given credit for the five years and one month he spent in jail awaiting trial, Ruiz is free on parole.

Brewer, Alvarado and Jurado-Correa have yet to be sentenced.

Brewer lived in unincorporated Wheaton; Alvarado, Jurado-Correa and Ruiz lived in West Chicago.

https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20231106/woman-pleads-guilty-to-west-chicago-murder-where-victim-was-stabbed-burned-and-run-over