Chicago man's conviction in 2007 Plainfield murder case reversed

A Chicago man who was convicted of killing his girlfriend’s former lover in Plainfield more than a decade ago was back in the Will County jail for a new trial after winning an appeal.

Ricardo Gutierrez, 31, was in jail Thursday for new court proceedings in Will County following a 2-1 decision from the 3rd District Appellate Court to reverse his first-degree murder conviction. Gutierrez was sentenced to 68 years in prison for killing 18-year-old Javier Barrios in 2007.

Barrios was the former boyfriend of Gabriela Escutia, 31, who was also found guilty of his murder until the appellate court overturned the conviction in 2018 and ordered a new trial because the police did not advise her of her Miranda Rights before she confessed to the crime.

After the appeal, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for her role in Barrios’ death, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, credited with already serving 10 years and then released from jail on Feb. 19, 2019. She initially faced 52 years in prison after her first conviction.

Escutia testified in her 2014 murder case that Barrios was an abusive boyfriend and she shot him one time but didn't intend to kill him. Prosecutors argued she was a "manipulative, coldblooded killer" who lured Barrios to his death.

In a Nov. 15 opinion, Justice Robert Carter found Gutierrez was illegally arrested and his statements to the Plainfield police should not have been used against him at trial.

Carter said the police violated Gutierrez’s and Escutia’s constitutional rights after they arrested them at Gutierrez’s home in Chicago “during the early morning hours without a warrant or probable cause.”

Carter said the officers took the couple to the police station for an interrogation and used improper techniques to unlawfully obtain Escutia’s incriminating statements and use them against Gutierrez, who also incriminated himself in Barrios’ murder.

“Thus, when taken as a whole, the facts of this case (and Escutia’s) show that the police embarked upon a course of flagrant and/or purposeful misconduct by employing a series of improper tactics with the hope of turning up evidence in Barrios’ murder,” Carter said.

Carter said Gutierrez’s statements to the police must be suppressed in a new trial.

Justice Mary McDade concurred with Carter’s opinion while Justice Vicki Wright dissented.

Wright said Gutierrez was read his Miranda Rights before he was interviewed and the officers who interviewed him were not accused of any misconduct or abuse of power, unlike those who questioned Escutia.