Erick Maya's Murder Conviction Could Be In Jeopardy: Court

JOLIET, IL — Joliet attorney George Lenard is one of the more highly regarded criminal defense lawyers in the Will County Courthouse, but an Illinois appeals court has found fault with Lenard's work representing high-profile murder defendant Erick Maya. The 3rd District Appellate Court recently ruled in favor of the convicted killer on his ineffective assistance of counsel claim surrounding the 2014 killing of Romeoville teenager Briana Valle.

Maya, who turns 29 in July, was convicted of killing the 15-year-old Romeoville High School student. According to trial testimony, the young man from Cicero met Briana on Facebook when she was 13. They carried on romantically until he shot her to death in February 2014. He also shot Briana's mother in the neck. Alicia Guerrero survived and still carries the bullet lodged near her spine.

Now, five years later, the appeals court's 13-page ruling means Maya's 2014 murder conviction could be in serious jeopardy.

Although the conviction has not been overturned yet, the Illinois appeals judges wrote: "The judgment of the circuit court of Will County is reversed. The matter is remanded for the appointment of new counsel to represent the defendant on his post-trial claim that defense counsel was ineffective for failing to strike (Kevin) McGrath from the jury."

According to the appeals court's decision, during the jury selection process McGrath acknowledged he was employed as a correctional officer with the Will County Sheriff’s Department. He also indicated his son-in-law was an assistant state’s attorney in Will County.

"The parties agreed that they would each be allotted seven peremptory challenges," the appeals court wrote. "The defendant’s attorneys used five of their seven challenges. McGrath was seated as the first alternate juror. When a juror became ill during the State’s case-in-chief, McGrath was, by agreement of the parties, seated on the jury. At the conclusion of the defendant’s trial, the jury found him guilty on all charged counts."

After being found guilty of murder, Maya filed a pro se post-conviction motion accusing Lenard of ineffective assistance of counsel.

“Mr. George Lenard allowed me to have a tainted jury which had a correctional officer from the housing unit where I was housed named Kevin McGrath, who I had several altercations with who would tell other inmates about my case," Maya wrote the Illinois appeals court that reviewed his murder case. "Since my case was against a minor and two females, he would tell other inmates in hopes to have them attack me and who would come to my cell and verbally insult me.

"Before trial he knew who I was by me having a high-profile case and eventually working on my POD nine times before trial. After I informed George Lenard about him, he responded telling me, ‘Oh, well, we rather have him rather than anyone else or the venireman who’s a State’s Attorney.’ In another occasion, after I informed him I didn’t want him on my jury, he told me, ‘Well, he said he was going to be fair.’ This (correctional officer) clearly had hatred towards me so of course he was going to find me guilty.”

The Illinois appeals court judges agreed with the convicted killer's legal arguments, also pointing out that although Maya had two defense lawyers, he only raised an ineffective assistance claim against one: George Lenard.

"If the defendant’s factual allegations are true, the seating of McGrath on the jury that eventually found the defendant guilty shocks the conscience. The claims that McGrath had altercations with the defendant in jail and induced other inmates to harass the defendant by sharing details of his case demonstrate actual malice and bias. Trial before a biased jury is structural error and requires automatic reversal ... It is difficult to discern any potential strategy defense counsel might have for allowing a juror with demonstrated bias toward his client to serve on a jury.

"We make no finding as to the credibility of the defendant’s factual allegations. However, given the serious nature of the allegations, the absence of any explanation from defense counsel as to the facts and circumstances surrounding the allegations, and the fact that the record shows that McGrath was a Will County correctional officer, we hold that the circuit court’s determination that the defendant failed to demonstrate possible neglect of the case was manifestly erroneous.

"Accordingly, we find that further proceedings on the defendant’s post-trial claims of ineffectiveness are warranted under the circumstances presented in this case."

In October 2014, Maya was sentenced by a retiring Will County judge to 72 years of imprisonment for the first-degree murder, another 39 years for the attempted first-degree murder and another 11 years for the unlawful use of a weapon conviction.

Former Joliet Patch staff writer Joe Hosey covered the 2014 murder trial and he reported that the Will County jury took less than two and a half hours to find 24-year-old Erick Maya guilty of gunning down his teen lover after she spurned him and took up with a high school boyfriend. Maya smirked as the verdict was read and laughed as the jury filed out of the courtroom.

To read the entire Illinois Court of Appeals decision go here.

PATCH COVERAGE OF ERICK MAYA:

Cicero Man Laughs At Jury After He's Found Guilty Of Murdering Teenage Girl

Man Who Killed Romeoville Teen Seeks Lighter Sentence

Retiring Will County Judge Mocks Convicted Killer Erick Maya