Anthony C. Medina will likely live the rest of his life in prison for murdering a man in 2017 in Aurora.
Kane County Judge David Kliment imposed a 60-year sentence last week on the 29-year-old Aurora man.
Medina was convicted in February of first-degree murder, armed violence and aggravated battery with a firearm.
On June 10, 2017, Rodolfo Rocha Jr. was outside a home on Grove Street with friends and relatives when Martin Garcia Jr. and Medina approached the group and told them to declare a gang affiliation. When the people replied that they did not belong to a gang, Medina and Garcia shot Rocha. The jury found that Medina fired the shot that killed Rocha. Medina also shot Garcia. Nobody else was injured.
Kliment sentenced Medina to 35 years on the murder charge, plus a mandatory extra 25 years because of the use of a gun. He will have to serve 100% of the sentence before he is eligible for parole.
Medina was also sentenced to 20 years for armed violence, to be served after he completes the murder sentence, and 10 years for aggravated battery, to be served concurrently. He will have to serve at least 50% of those two sentences and get credit for the nearly five years he has spent in the Kane County jail since his arrest.
“Mr. Medina received a prison sentence that is likely to keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. It is a sentence he earned through his poor choices, his loyalty to the gang lifestyle and his affinity for guns and violent behavior,” State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser said in a news release. “His dangerous conduct on June 10, 2017 — he fired at least 12 gunshots in the direction of seven people — could well have led to multiple murders.”
Medina lived in the 1100 block of Gates Street.
