Man Found In Bed With Wife's Dead Body Sentenced

CREST HILL, IL — A Crest Hill man was sentenced to 30 years in prison Thursday for the strangulation murder of his estranged wife. Earlier this year, Cesar Garcia, 29, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the Aug. 25, 2015 death of his wife, 22-year-old Laura Gonzalez. Will County State's Attorney's Office spokesman Chuck Pelkie said officers conducting a well-being check at Gonzalez' Marlboro Lane apartment found Garcia lying in bed with his dead wife's body.

According to officials, Garcia was no longer living at the apartment, and Gonzalez was in a new relationship and had been trying to end the marriage.

When officers found him, Garcia was "disoriented and lethargic," according to Pelkie. Garcia admitted to strangling Gonzalez in the kitchen, telling her, "If I can't have you, no one will," prosecutors said.

Garcia then moved his wife into the bedroom, where he made superficial cuts to his own wrist, swallowed some pills and took two sips of a household cleaner in an apparent suicide attempt. He was treated at Presence St. Joseph Medical Center before being taken into custody following his wife's death, authorities said at the time.

Gonzalez had been strangled and suffered injuries to her head and face, as well as cuts to her wrists.

Just two months before Gonzalez was murdered, Garcia was charged with domestic battery. After that arrest, he was forbidden by court order to come around Gonzalez or her home. As a condition of his bond, he was to stay at least 1,000 feet from her and her residence.

Days after the murder, Gonzalez' sister, Guadalupe Garcia, told Patch that relatives didn't know why Cesar Garcia was at the apartment that day. "We don't know," she said. "We just know that she's gone."

Garcia's sister, who bailed him out of jail two days after the domestic battery arrest, remembered them as a devoted couple, telling Patch, "They were husband and wife. They were always together."

The murder case was prosecuted by Assistant State’s Attorney Peter Wilkes. Circuit Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak handed down the sentence.

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Main photo: Cesar Garcia/Will County Sheriff's Office. Photo of Laura Gonzalez via GoFundMe