DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin has announced that a then 17-year-old Glendale Heights man has been sentenced to 20 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for the shooting death of 21-year-old Miguel Reynoso.
Jesse Garza, 20, appeared in court where he entered a guilty plea to one count of second-degree murder (Class 1 felony) in front of Judge Daniel Guerin.
On June 10, 2018, Garza appeared in bond court where bond was set at $3 million with 10 percent to apply. He has been held in custody since that time.
In the late afternoon hours of June 7, 2018, Addison police officers responded to the area of Green Oaks Park for a report of shots fired. While conducting their search of the area, the Addison Police Department was alerted by the Glendale Heights Police Department of an unresponsive person on a driveway near Glen Oaks Hospital in Glendale Heights.
The unresponsive person was later identified as Reynoso, a rival gang member. Reynoso was pronounced deceased at the scene from multiple gunshots.
Through the course of their investigation, authorities learned that Reynoso was traveling in a dark colored sedan in Addison when the sedan made contact with a group of individuals, of which Garza was a member.
Gang signs and threats were exchanged by the occupants of the sedan and the group at which time Reynoso and another individual, both armed, exited the sedan. Garza then fired his weapon toward the sedan striking Reynoso. Following the shooting, Reynoso re-entered the sedan and fled the scene. An investigation into the shooting conducted by the Addison Police Department led to Garza.
“Unfortunately, gang-fueled violence such as we saw in this case, continues to plague our communities,” Berlin said. “The senseless murder of a human being simply because of foolish gang rivalries has a detrimental effect on the entire community and will not be tolerated in DuPage County, as Mr. Garza learned.”
