Romeoville Teen's Murder Featured On ID Network Show

ROMEOVILLE, IL — More than four years after her teenage daughter was shot to death, a Romeoville mother will appear on an Investigation Discovery (ID) network show about the 2014 tragedy. Briana Valle, 15, died two days after her ex-boyfriend, Erick Maya, shot her and her mother in their car outside their Romeoville home.

Briana's mother, Alicia Guerrero, shared a Facebook post saying she will appear on the May 8 episode of ID's "Forbidden: Dying for Love." The show airs at 9 p.m. Central Tuesday, and will also feature appearances from Romeoville police officers as well as some of Briana's classmates at a Chicago high school, she said.

The episode description notes, "A teen girl forbidden from dating falls hard for an older man. In a desperate bid to be with him, she runs away from home. But when young love turns to fatal obsession, what will it take to bring her back?"

During Maya's trial, Guerrero testified that her daughter met Maya on Facebook when she was just 13. The teen ran off with him in August 2012, returning after an exhaustive search by her mother. Though Briana had been cut off from her older boyfriend, Maya showered her with gifts, including an engagement ring.

His obsession with the teen prompted the family to move from Chicago to Romeoville, where she eventually began dating a boy her own age. During the murder trial, a Will County prosecutor shared Facebook messages Briana sent to her ex in which she told him, "I want nothing to do with you."

But an infuriated Maya remained obsessed with Briana, taking a taxi to Romeoville the day before Valentine's Day 2014. He ambushed Briana and her mother as they got into their car, headed for the teen's high school.

Briana, just 15 and a high school freshman, was struck in the head and died two days later. Guerrero, who was shot in the neck, survived the attack but was left with a bullet lodged near her spine.

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Maya was convicted of Briana's murder as well as the attempted murder of her mother. While incarcerated for those crimes, he was convicted of the sexual assault of two other underage girls. He also has a conviction for viciously beating a different 15-year-old girl with a beer bottle and a metal pipe in 2011.

An irate judge sentenced Maya to 122 years in prison, taking the opportunity to mock the convicted killer. "I had to look at that defendant walk in with that idiotic smirk on his face," Judge Robert Livas said in October 2014. "I've seen some cretinous things crawl into my courtroom," the judge said. "... Five-four, 130 pounds, no education, no job, lived in the apartments of others, didn't even own a cell phone, no car. Could women his own age find him as pathetic as I do?"

The judge added, "True justice, real justice, would be putting him and Briana's father in a room together, but I can't say that," said Livas. Maya's projected parole date is July 25, 2131. In 2015, his bid for a shorter sentence was rejected.

Romeoville Police Chief Mark Turvey called the crime "truly senseless," saying, "There was no excuse for this."

Image of Briana Valle (left) and her mother via GoFundMe