Hammer Homicide: Joliet Man Guilty In 2016 Murder

JOLIET, IL — Five years and three months after a Joliet man died after being hit over the head with a hammer and strangled, a Will County judge has found defendant Javier Heredia-Rios guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of concealing a homicide.

Will County Judge Sarah Jones rendered her verdict late Friday morning. Sentencing is March 18.

Heredia-Rios faces up top 60 years in prison on the first-degree murder charges and up to five years on the concealment count.

Now 37 years old, Heredia-Rios opted to have his case heard by the judge rather than a jury trial surrounding the death of his friend, Oscar Gararido-Castro, 36, also of Joliet.

A resident of Joliet's 300 block of Eastern Avenue, Heredia-Rios has been in the Will County Jail since his arrest by the Will County Sheriff's Office on Oct. 18, 2016.

Back in 2016, Joliet Patch reported that Heredia-Rios was arrested less than 12 hours after Garrido-Castro's body was found in an abandoned 2004 GMC Envoy in Joliet Township.

Heredia-Rios and Garrido-Castro were longtime acquaintances and were together on Sunday, Oct. 16, 2016, around 6:30 p.m., at Mora Builders on West 159th Street in Homer Glen, where Heredia-Rios was employed, police said at the time.

The business was closed when the two men allegedly began to argue about sexual advances that Garrido-Castro made to Heredia-Rios, police said.

According to Will County State's Attorney Jim Glasgow, Heredia-Rios struck Garrido-Castro in the head with a hammer multiple times and then proceeded to strangle him following an argument.

The victim's body was then placed by Heredia-Rios in Garrido-Castro’s 2004 GMC Envoy and driven to the 1700 block of Rosalind Avenue in Joliet Township where it was abandoned. The following morning, Will County Sheriff's deputies found the body, wrapped in a rug, in the vehicle’s hatch, Glasgow noted.