Convicted of murder 30 years ago, DeKalb man gets 12-year prison term for Marengo shooting

A felon who was convicted of a 1993 murder in Elgin for which he served about 25 years in prison was sentenced Tuesday to another 12 for firing a gun outside a Marengo restaurant.

Rudy Villarreal Jr., 50, of DeKalb, was found guilty following a bench trial in August before McHenry County Judge Mark Gerhardt of using a firearm as a convicted felon and reckless discharge of a firearm. The judge found Villarreal not guilty of violating an order of protection.

He is required to serve half his prison time and when released will be on one year of mandatory supervised release, Gerhardt said in handing down the sentence.

In closing arguments, Assistant State’s Attorney William Bruce asked for the maximum sentence of 14 years in prison to be served at 100%, though, he said, even that would not be long enough.

Villarreal’s attorney Brian Stevens argued for three years in prison to give him a chance for rehabilitation.

Bruce said Villarreal plays the victim and takes no “personal responsibility” for his actions. There is “nothing but sadness, disappointment and grief from everybody,” Bruce said in reference to family members who gave emotional statements asking for leniency. They said Villarreal is loved and a good man, but flawed and he has made mistakes. During their statements Villarreal sobbed.

On Tuesday, prosecutors called to the stand James Lullo, who was a detective who assisted in the 1993 case in Elgin in which Villarreal was convicted of first-degree murder in Cook County. Lullo testified that just after midnight Oct. 23, 1993, he went to a bar in Elgin where a shooting had taken place. Villarreal, then a known ranking member of a street gang, went to the bar that night to confront a member of another gang, Lullo said.

Villarreal was at the back of the bar with a loaded gun as people exited. He shot at Antonio Perez Jr. three times, hitting him twice in the back, killing him, Lullo said. Perez was 23. Villarreal was sentenced to 50 years in prison but was required to serve just half. He was released in 2018, records show.

Bruce said this is similar to what Villarreal did in his current case, only this time no one died.

At about 11 p.m. June 2, 2023, Villarreal – who had an order of protection against him filed by a woman after a domestic battery incident just three days prior – went with another woman to a restaurant in Marengo. During the trial, Bruce said Villarreal knew the woman who filed the protective order against him would be there. He was out of jail on bond while awaiting trial in the domestic battery case involving the woman.

When he saw the woman in the restaurant, Villarreal left out the back door. The woman followed the couple out and a fight ensued between them, with Villarreal then pulling out a gun and shooting into the air three times, prosecutors said.

Villarreal has denied having a gun that night and there are witnesses who said during the trial they did not see him shoot a gun. However, there also were witnesses who said they did see him with the gun and shoot it into the air, according to trial testimony.

Witnesses “were shocked, startled and scared when he is outside the restaurant and he is firing a gun,” Bruce said. The prosecutor also drew a comparison to the 1993 incident. “There are too many similarities.”

Bruce said in the 1993 Elgin case, Villarreal went to a bar, where there were multiple people and fired a gun three times, same as in Marengo.

“Luckily, thankfully, nobody was hurt,” Bruce said.

Stevens, the defense attorney, said: “There is a lot of talk of 1993. He already paid a penalty for that.”

Stevens said things went “haywire” that night last year in Marengo. He noted that after Villarreal saw the woman who was named in the domestic battery case and who had filed an order of protection against him, he turned to leave. Had the woman not followed him outside, where the argument happened, “we would not be here,” Stevens said.

Stevens spoke of Villarreal’s tough upbringing. He and his brother were raised without a dad by a single mom “doing the best she can” in Elgin. He was expelled in seventh grade “and things [got] further and further worse.” Villarreal began drinking alcohol and doing street drugs at a young age, making him “ripe for a gang” which “is impossible” to break away from.

“He tries to be a good family man. ... He maintains his innocence,” Stevens said. After his prison release, Stevens said, Villarreal led a law-abiding life and was part of his community. He has medical issues and suffers post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction, which, Stevens said, “I believe had a lot to do with why we are here today.”

During the sentencing hearing, Villarreal stood and turned toward his family and tearfully apologized.

“I am not perfect, but that’s the beauty of me,” he said. “I am not a victim; I am an overcomer.”

Villarreal also made several statements looking directly at the prosecutor, addressing him as “Mr. Bruce” and saying Bruce will never understand or know what it is like to grow up the way Villarreal did. He said he would “give anything to change” what happened in 1993, but he can “never get back 30 years.”

In announcing his sentence, Gerhardt said, “We are a product of our own environment,” and added he would not “pretend to understand” the way Villarreal grew up. The judge also said he was not “here to retry” the 1993 murder.