122-Year Prison Sentence Upheld for Killer Obsessed with Teen

More than three months after he was sentenced to 122 years in prison, a Cicero man learned he wouldn’t get any breaks from the new judge on his case.

Erick Maya, 24, needed a new judge to refuse his request for a new sentence because the judge who presided over his trial, Robert Livas, abruptly retired and walked out after giving the Cicero man 122 years.

Judge Daniel Rozak upheld Livas’ sentence and said it was “well within the statutory scheme of things.”

When he handed down the sentence, Livas said true “justice, real justice, would be putting (Maya) and (murdered 15-year-old Briana Valle’s) father in a room together, but I can’t say that. I can’t even think that—it violates the oath I’ve sworn to.”

Livas also took the time during the sentencing hearing to let Maya know how he felt about him, saying, “I had to look at that defendant walk in with that idiotic smirk on his face.” Livas also recalled how he was forced to “hide (his) revulsion” from the jury.

“I’ve seen some cretinous things crawl into my courtroom,” Livas said as he mocked Maya’s stature, lack of schooling and employment, as well as his apparent poverty.

“Five-four, 130 pounds, no education, no job, lived in the apartments of others, didn’t even own a cell phone, no car,” the judge said. “Could women his own age find him as pathetic as I do?”

Rozak noted that “Judge Livas probably should have exercised greater restraint in what his comments were.”

Maya met Briana on Facebook when she was 13. They carried on romantically until he shot her to death Feb. 13. He also shot Briana’s mother, Alicia Guerrero, in the neck. Guerrero survived and still carries the bullet lodged near her spine.

Maya became enraged after Briana broke off their love affair. Briana’s family moved from Chicago’s Little Village to Romeoville to escape him. She began dating another high school student and had plans to go out with him on Valentine’s Day. Maya killed her the day before the big date.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had wanted to send Maya back to Mexico after he was charged in October 2011 with beating a different 15-year-old girlfriend. He allegedly used a beer bottle and a metal pipe in the attack.

ICE placed an immigration detainer on Maya, according to an agency spokesman, but the Berwyn police released him without notifying them.

Maya ended up getting sentenced to 60 days in the Cook County jail and 30 months probation. He missed a court date for a probation status check exactly one week before he murdered Briana.

On the day Maya failed to appear, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Kristin Piper asked Judge Gregory Ginex to issue a warrant for his arrest but the judge refused, according to a court transcript. Ginex pointed out the “weather has been very bad” and scheduled another date.

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