Gang Member Gets Sentence 18 Years After Beating Man To Death: Mosser

AURORA, IL — Eighteen years after beating a man to death in Aurora, a gang member has been sentenced to 38 years in Illinois prison, officials said.

In March, 41-year-old Quinton C. Moore was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder in the 2005 beating of 21-year-old George Caro, an Aurora resident, Patch reported.

On the morning of Sept. 4, 2005, members of a local street gang were at a party in the 600 block of Lincoln Avenue when they saw Caro and began questioning him.

After asking Caro if he had cooperated with police in a murder investigation and if he was a true gang member, several gang members — and Moore's co-defendants, Juan Vargas, Max M. Aguilar, Ruben Hernandez and Roman Lucio — severely kicked and punched him and beat him up with a baseball bat. The men took Caro's shirt and shoes and left him to die, officials said.

His autopsy revealed 22 injuries to his head and 16 to his upper body and arms, officials said. His cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma.

Caro's murder was indicted in June 2007 as part of a multi-jurisdictional cold-case investigation known as "Operation First Degree Burn," Patch reported. A special grand jury indicted more than 30 men in 22 cold case homicides investigated by the Kane County State's Attorney's Office, Aurora Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Kane County Sheriff's Office.

Moore, whose last address was in the 600 block of Sheridan Avenue, is required to serve his full sentence consecutive to a 27-year prison sentence for attempted first-degree murder. Vargas, Aguilar and Hernandez were each also convicted and sentenced to prison.

"This closes the book on Quinton Moore’s long criminal career, ensuring that Aurora will be safer than it was when he roamed the streets," Assistant State's Attorney Mark Stajdohar said in a statement.

He continued: "It took a long time for everyone responsible for George Caro's murder to be held accountable, which means many of the individuals who helped bring him justice have moved on or retired. Their work is not forgotten."