Attempted murder charge dropped against Joliet man: records

A Joliet man has pleaded guilty to wounding a 2-year-old boy during a 2018 shootout.

Leonardo Ornelas, 24, was initially scheduled for a jury trial next week over the April 24, 2018, shootout in the 400 block of Landau Avenue. He instead decided to plead guilty to aggravated battery on May 11.

The Will County State’s Attorney’s Office motioned to drop charges of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated discharge of a firearm and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, according to court records.

Judge Dan Rippy sentenced Ornelas to serve 85% of a 6-year prison sentence and gave him credit for already serving 1,113 days in the Will County jail.

Ornelas pleaded guilty to firing a gun and wounding a minor with a firearm. The statement of facts in the case said he “shot a firearm and struck the victim in the leg.”

The minor who was wounded is the son of Vanessa Casillas, 24, and Roberto Ortiz, 24, Joliet police said.

The couple were also arrested when Ortiz shot back at Ornelas and his co-defendant Julian Guerra, 21, during the incident, and Casillas falsely claimed to a detective that she was the one who fired the gun, according to Joliet police.

The criminal cases against Guerra, Casillas and Ortiz remain pending in court.

Guerra still faces the attempted first-degree murder charge.

Former Joliet Police Chief Al Roechner told The Herald-News in 2018 that officers responded to a report of a 2-year-old who had been shot in the 400 block of Landau Avenue.

When officers arrived, Ortiz had already taken his child to Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox, Roechner said. Casillas told police that the family was outside in their driveway when a green older model SUV drove past the residence several times, he said.

The vehicle then stopped in front of the residence, and the passenger fired about four rounds at them, Roechner said.

It “appears to be gang-related,” Roechner said of the incident at the time. The “father stated he has been shot at in the past by these subjects, and they are gang members. He has gang affiliations.”