Blue Kangaroo Killer Finally Sentenced For Vice Lord Slaying In Joliet's Rear Parking Lot

JOLIET, IL — Five years and four months since Joliet police took 17-year-old Cristian Ortiz-Arias into custody for the first-degree murder of another 17-year-old in the rear Blue Kangaroo Laundromat parking lot, the Joliet killer learned his sentence Thursday morning in Courtroom 402.

Now 22 years old and still living in the Will County Jail where he is one of the longer serving inmates, Ortiz was given a 35-year sentence for the murder and another one-year of prison for his unlawful use of a firearm offense. Will County Judge Amy Christiansen presided over Thursday's sentencing decision. The prosecution team was led by Adam Capelli while Ortiz was represented by downtown Joliet criminal defense attorney Chuck Bretz.

"The family is adamant that he is not culpable for this death, so we intend to mount a vigorous defense," Bretz told Joliet Patch more than five years ago.

As it stands, Ortiz will be going to the Illinois Department of Corrections for a long period of his life. He must serve the 35-year portion of his first-degree murder sentence at 100 percent. The one-year term for the firearm offense will only be served at 50 percent. It's a consecutive sentence.

It was nearly one year ago when Ortiz and Bretz learned that the murder case did not go their way.

Last Sept. 26, Joliet Patch was in Courtroom 402 when Judge Christiansen announced her guilty findings following her recent bench trial of Ortiz-Arias.

Judge Christiansen rejected the defense argument put forth by Bretz, who argued that his client killed Diego Guadalupe Arriaga in self-defense. Judge Christiansen announced that she found the self-defense claim put forth by Bretz and his client "to be simply unbelievable.

"This gives me no pleasure, no joy. This is a young man, and I find him guilty of first-degree murder," Judge Christiansen told everyone gathered in Courtroom 402 last September.

Prior to the murder at 606 East Cass Street, there was a confrontation involving several teenagers at the nearby McDonald's fast-food restaurant parking lot.

According to court files, Joliet police responded to the Blue Kangaroo Laundromat on May 22, 2021, at 4:55 a.m. They found Diego face down with a large of blood near him. Diego had been shot in the back three times and died from his gunshot wounds. Two eyewitnesses came forward in time.

They told Joliet police how they picked up Ortiz and drove him to the naerby McDonald's restaurant drive-thru before he asked them to take him to the back parking lot of Blue Kangaroo. While in the parking lot, Diego came up to their vehicle and they heard gunshots.

"Defendant was on the phone with someone and stated that he killed him and that he was a Vice Lord," prosecutors outlined in 2023 court records. "Defendant also called the witnesses after being dropped off and told them to get rid of any evidence. The two witnesses then found shell casings in the back seat of the vehicle and disposed of them."

Before Ortiz gets shipped out to Stateville, the first stop typically for new inmates facing classification from the Illinois Department of Corrections, Bretz plans to make one more final effort on behalf of his client and his client's family.

On Sept. 21, they will return to Courtroom 402 on behalf of Bretz's motion to reconsider the sentence. The chances of such a motion being granted are very minimal. Provided Bretz's loses the hearing as expected, the final sentencing order will indicate how many days of credit Ortiz will get based on his time already spent in custody at the Will County Jail.