Plea offer made in Joliet triple murder case

Prosecutors have made a plea offer to a man charged in connection with the 2017 flare gun attack on a Joliet residence that left two women and an infant dead.

The Will County State’s Attorney’s Office and Chuck Bretz, attorney for Manual Escamilla, 22, would not disclose the terms of the plea offer, which has not been accepted or rejected.

In 2017, Escamilla, Andy Cerros, 21, and Eric Raya, 22, were charged with first-degree murder and arson after they were accused of firing a flare gun at a residence on Center Street in Joliet.

Regina Rogers, 28; Rogers’ 11-month-old daughter, Royalty Rogers; and Jacquetta Rogers, 29, were killed in a fire.

Prosecutors said the incident was part of an ongoing gang-related feud between Escamilla and Rakeem “Rocky” Venson, who was the intended target of the attack. Venson managed to escape the fire by jumping out the window.

Prosecutors agreed to drop all 10 charges against Raya in exchange for his testimony against Escamilla and Cerros. As part of the deal, Raya also pleaded guilty to obstructing justice in the murder case and aggravated battery in an unrelated incident.

Cerros initially planned to go to a jury trial until he agreed to plead guilty to killing the two women and infant.

Cerros, who was 17 at the time of the incident, was sentenced to 32 years in prison.

His attorney, Blake Stone, said Cerros “wanted to desperately fit in, and unfortunately, the people he wanted to fit in to were bad people.”

In light of the plea offer for Escamilla, Bretz filed a motion to determine the range of sentencing for his client. Prosecutors have not yet responded to the motion, which is scheduled for a hearing June 16.

Bretz’s motion argued that prosecutors made a plea offer to Escamilla and “without knowing the maximum and minimum penalties that he is facing in this cause, it is impossible for the defendant to knowingly address the viability of said plea offer.”

Bretz’s motion said Escamilla was 18 “at the time of these alleged offenses” and there has been a “growing national consensus reflecting society’s increasing disapproval of lengthy incarceration for youthful offenders.”

“This movement supports the individualized consideration of an offender’s youth and rehabilitative potential before imposing a sentence that is a de facto or near-life prison term,” according to Bretz’s motion.

The U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged that qualities distinguishing juveniles from adults do not disappear when an individual turns 18 and there is “growing consensus within the scientific community” that the brains of young adults continue to develop into their mid-20s, according to Bretz’s motion.

Bretz said Escamilla did not fire the flare gun.

Raya testified that he saw Cerros holding the flare gun used in the deadly arson.

Raya currently is contending with prosecutors’ petition to revoke his probation in response to his Nov. 4, 2019, arrest in Summit on charges of armed robbery, aggravated battery and mob action.