2nd man pleads guilty to wounding minor in 2018 Joliet shooting

A second man pleaded guilty to wounding a 2-year-old boy during a 2018 shooting in Joliet.

On Jan. 4, Julian Guerra, 22, of Lockport pleaded guilty to committing aggravated battery in connection with the April 24, 2018, shooting, court records show.

Prosecutors dropped charges of attempted murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm.

Judge Dan Rippy sentenced Guerra to six years in prison and credited him with 1,351 days already served in the Will County jail.

In June, Leonardo Ornelas, 24, Guerra’s co-defendant, similarly pleaded guilty to wounding the child during the 2018 shooting. Prosecutors also dropped the attempted murder against Ornelas, as well as charges of aggravated discharge of a firearm and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

Ornelas was also sentenced to six years in prison.

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

The minor was shot by the occupants of an SUV in the 400 block of Landau Avenue, according to Joliet police.

Both parents ended up pleading guilty to separate criminal offenses last December in connection with the incident.

Casillas was initially charged with obstructing justice but she later pleaded guilty on Dec. 10 to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.

Prosecutors said in a Dec. 10 court filing that Casillas told a Joliet police detective that she “discharged a firearm, knowing such information to be false.”

Ortiz pleaded guilty to aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. Rippy sentenced him to two years of conditional discharge and credited him with two days already served in jail.

Prosecutors dropped charges of aggravated discharge of a firearm and obstructing justice. The latter charge accused Ortiz of lying to a detective by claiming it wasn’t he but Casillas who fired a gun.