Crime & Safety
3 Guilty In Gang Rape Of Barely Conscious Woman
They video recorded the sexual assault, which occurred in Elgin in December 2014, prosecutors said.
Three Elgin street gang members are headed to prison for sexually assaulting a woman who was barely conscious at the time. Daniel Hernandez Gutierrez, 24, of South Elgin and Jose L. Vazquez, Jr., 21, of Elgin both pleaded guilty Friday to aggravated criminal sexual assault charges and, as part of a plea deal, were sentenced to 18 years in prison, according to a news release from the Kane County State's Attorney's Office. Earlier in the week, a third defendant in the case, Eric N. Cruz, 26, also pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, a Class X felony, and will be sentenced at a later date.
Prosecutors said the sex assault occurred between Dec. 9 and Dec. 10, 2014. Vazquez, of the 1 to 99 block of Longwood Circle in Elgin, and Hernandez-Gutierrez, of the 700 block of Dean Drive in South Elgin, each sexually assaulted a barely conscious young woman while Cruz, of the 700 block of Dixon Avenue in Elgin, used his cell phone to video record the crimes. During the rapes, the trio of defendants laughed and represented their gangs by making gang hand signs and statements referring to their gang.
The rapes happened at the home of a friend of the gang members.
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In addition to the prison terms, each of the men must register for life as a sexual offender.
According to Illinois law, each offender must serve at least 85 percent of the sentence. Hernandez Gutierrez received credit for 1,274 days served in the Kane County jail, and Vazquez received credit for 1,253 days served in jail. Cruz remains in the Kane County jail without bond.
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“These three defendants committed degrading acts, and even video recorded their crimes. They belong in prison. Their guilty pleas relieve the victim of having to see her attackers again and talk publicly about how she was raped while she was nearly unconscious,” Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon said.
(From left to right): Jose Vasquez, Eric Cruz and Daniel Hernandez Gutierrez/Photo credit: Kane County State's Attorney's Office
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