Woman Accusing Joliet Man of Killing Her Baby Had Child With Him: Attorney

The year after a West Chicago woman’s baby allegedly died at the hands of a man she was having sex with a few times a week, she gave birth to his daughter, the jailed man’s legal team claimed in a court filing.

Santos Loza, 34, was already found guilty of murdering 8-month-old Kevion Bender but saw his conviction reversed by a Will County judge. Loza is scheduled to stand trial again on Groundhog Day.

Loza allegedly killed Kevion in October 2008. The night before Kevion was found dead in the Joliet townhouse Loza was living in at the time, the child had been left in Loza’s care. Kevion’s mother, Sandra Sitko, had met Loza through a website less than three months prior.

Since making Loza’s acquaintance online, Sitko had been traveling from her home in West Chicago to his place about three times a week to have sex and spend the night. When she visited, Sitko brought along both Kevion and her older son, Dillion.

Loza was alone with Kevion for the first time the night before the child died. He was babysitting Kevion so Sitko could work a shift at a McDonald’s in West Chicago.

Sitko discovered Kevion’s lifeless body on the floor where he had been put to sleep. During the ensuing autopsy, a forensic pathologist found evidence of 35 separate injuries, including a fractured skull and broken ribs.

Sitko continued her sexual relationship with Loza for almost two years after her son’s death, according to defense attorneys. Those same attorneys—Alexander Beck, Adam Altman and Joseph “Shark” Lopez—filed court papers claiming a baby Sitko had in 2009 is Loza’s child.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services took away both that child and Dillion, according to the court filing, and Sitko has not gotten them back.

A Facebook posting from a user named “Sandra Sitko” showed her “with two young children, one boy and one girl,” the filing said, and in a comment “accompanying that public posting, user name ‘Sandra Sitko’ wrote, ‘I don’t have my kids bec(ause) of what happened in 2008.’”

Loza’s lawyers want to explore whether or not Sitko has custody of her children during Loza’s upcoming trial.

“The evidence is relevant to this cause because it shows that Ms. Sitko harbors prejudice against Mr. Loza and may color her testimony accordingly,” the filing said. “Furthermore, the evidence uncovers ulterior motives for Ms. Sitko to testify against Mr. Loza.”

A jury took only two hours to find Loza guilty in September 2013. Seven months later, Judge Sarah Jones decided to give him a new trial when she ruled that limiting the questions lawyers could ask Sitko about her sexual relationship with Loza was a mistake.

Judge Jones forbade defense lawyers from asking about the couple’s sexual history after February 2009. Loza’s lawyers were still able to establish that Sitko continued her sexual relationship with Loza, and Sitko even admitted on the witness stand that they carried on sexually for months after Kevion’s death. Sitko claimed she did so in an attempt to find out how her baby died.

Lopez mocked Sitko’s explanation during the trial, saying, “I’m going to crack the case by having sex with Santos.”

“Are you kidding me?” Lopez scoffed. “Really?”

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