Joliet Murder Retrial Underway For Jesus Zambrano

JOLIET, IL — On May 22, 2009, 36-year-old Joliet resident Robert Gooch was fatally shot in the head at the Larkin Village apartment complex during an apparent lover's triangle. In the days ahead, the Joliet Police were hot on the trail of Jesus Zambrano. He shaved his head, carried no identification and traveled with his mother and grandmother hoping to reach Mexico, but they failed to make it, court records show. Zambrano got captured about 25 miles from the Mexico border. He was extradited back to Will County to face first-degree murder charges.

In August 2013, a Will County jury found Jesus Zambrano guilty of first-degree murder and one of his friends, Pedro Sanchez, was also convicted of Gooch's murder. Sanchez received a 61-year prison term. In January 2014, Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak sentenced Zambrano to a 45-year prison term.

"These two thugs committed an act of despicable brutality by gunning down an unarmed man while his two children were asleep in the same room," State's Attorney James Glasgow said in a press release issued in 2014.

This week, for the second time, Zambrano is standing trial for the May 2009 murder.

In 2016, the Illinois Court of Appeals overturned Zambrano's murder conviction on grounds that Zambrano received ineffective assistance from his counsel. At the time of his murder trial, Zambrano was represented by one of Will County's most notable criminal defense law firms, Chuck Bretz & Associates.

This week, prosecutors and attorneys from the Bretz law firm are back in Courtroom 404 to re-litigate the evidence surrounding Gooch's violent death on Joliet's west side from 10 years ago.

On the night of the murder, Elissa Hinton testified at the original trial, she was Gooch's girlfriend and Gooch and his two sons were spending the night at her third floor apartment of 1007 Lois Place.

"Someone buzzed her apartment after 11 p.m. when she and Gooch were sleeping. Gooch eventually got up to answer the door," court documents note. "He opened the door and Hinton heard voices, which she identified as Gooch and Pedro Sanchez. She had recently broken up with Sanchez after dating him for three months while she was in a long-term relationship with Gooch.

"Hinton heard Sanchez say, 'It was my girl' and then she heard a gunshot," court of appeals transcripts reflect.

When Hinton ran into her living room, she found Gooch's lifeless body on the floor. She later identified Pedro Sanchez as being present from the Lois Place video surveillance cameras, however, "Hinton did not know Zambrano and did not identify him from the security camera videos," court records show.

According to testimony from the first murder trial, Christian Lopez testified on behalf of the prosecution that he was hanging out with Zambrano, Sanchez, Michael Ortiz and one other man on May 21, 2009 and that "the group continued drinking and smoking until sometime between 11:30 p.m. and midnight when Lopez, Sanchez, Zambrano and Michael Ortiz went to McDonald's. Zambrano drove Sanchez's gray Cutlass sedan. Sanchez rode in the front seat, Lopez sat in the backseat behind the driver and Ortiz sat behind Sanchez. Lopez was intoxicated," the prior court testimony showed.

From there, the four men drove to the Larkin Village apartments and "Zambrano opened the hood and Lopez assumed he grabbed something from under it," court records indicate. Moments later, the three were buzzed into the apartment complex and "Zambrano tried to hand Lopez a gun, which he refused to take ... Lopez waited on the landing in the stairwell while Zambrano and Sanchez continued to the third floor. Lopez heard a bang about five minutes later and fled, running back to the Cutlass."

The retrial for Zambrano, now 29, is taking place again in Will County Courtroom 404.