Joliet man petitions for certificate of innocence following murder acquittal

A Joliet man petitioned for a certificate of innocence after a jury in 2019 found him not guilty of fatally shooting a man in the head.

The petition for Jesus Zambrano, 31, was filed on Aug. 26 through his attorneys, Stephen Richards and Joshua Richards. On Aug. 27, 2019, a jury in a second trial for Zambrano found him not guilty of killing Robert Gooch with a handgun on May 22, 2009.

The second trial was held for Zambrano after the 3rd District Appellate Court reversed his first-degree murder conviction in 2016. In 2011, a jury found Pedro Sanchez, 42, guilty of killing Gooch and Sanchez was sentenced to 61 years in prison.

Zambrano’s petition for certificate of innocence said he “swears and affirms he is not guilty of first-degree murder.”

The petition is scheduled for a case management hearing on Dec. 14. Will County State’s Attorney spokeswoman Carole Cheney said the state’s attorney’s office “has not received the petition and so has not reviewed it.”

Under Illinois law, a person convicted and imprisoned for a felony they did not commit may, under certain conditions, file a petition for a certificate of innocence in the circuit court where the conviction occurred.

Zambrano’s petition said he is likely to succeed at trial in proving that he is innocent of the offenses charged in the indictment against him. The indictment charged Zambrano with shooting Gooch in the head.

“Because he is likely to succeed at trial in proving that he is innocent of the offenses charged in the indictment, this court should order an evidentiary hearing on the petition, if it is contested, and allow him an opportunity to prove, by a preponderance of evidence, that he is innocent of these charges,” Zambrano’s petition said.

Under a preponderance of evidence standard, the burden of proof is met when the party with the burden convinces a fact finder – such as a judge or jury – that there is greater than 50% chance that a claim is true, according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute website.

Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow had released a statement after the jury found Zambrano not guilty of killing Gooch in 2019.

“It is always difficult for witnesses to testify a second time, especially in a case such as this one where literally a decade has passed since the alleged conduct at issue occurred. We respect the decision reached by the jury in the retrial,” Glasgow said.

Zambrano is currently contending with a charge of aggravated battery with a firearm in connection with a May 7 shooting that injured a man in Joliet.