Joliet man already serving 45 years in prison for the murder of an innocent bystander received an additional six years today for abiding by his gang’s code of silence and refusing to testify against an associate gang member.

Joliet man already serving 45 years in prison for the murder of an innocent bystander received an additional six years today for abiding by his gang’s code of silence and refusing to testify against an associate gang member.
 
Robert Meza, 23, was sentenced for “serious direct criminal contempt” by DuPage Judge Kathryn Creswell. Meza refused to testify in the recent trail of Antonio Aguilar, 21, of Addison, for the 2007 murder in Addison of Lorenzo Salazar-Cortez, 22, of Berkeley.
 
Salazar-Cortez was fatally shot as he sat in a friend’s apartment. Prosecutors claimed it was Aguilar who actually fired the fatal shots.

Assistant State’s Attorney Steven Knight said that Meza was obeying his street gang’s code of silence by refusing to testify against Aguilar, who was acquitted of the crime last year by Judge George Bakalis.

The judge said prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence for a conviction and he specifically mentioned Meza’s refusal to testify as a factor in the trial’s outcome.

“You have followed the rules of the gang over that of society,” said Creswell. “Your objective was to further the goals of a street gang. This is particularly senseless because the victim was not a gang member.”

Meza told Creswell that “I am afraid of my safety at Menard” Correctional Center.

He admitted that when he was questioned by Addison police about the shooting he claimed Aguilar and he meant to shoot a rival gang member, but shot into the wrong apartment. But today he claimed that he was innocent of that crime and lied to police to protect a different gang member.

Creswell said previously that state law does not specify any maximum sentence for the contempt “other than reasonable.” But she said she would abide by the plea agreement of no more than 10 years in prison that Meza struck with prosecutors when he pleaded guilty to the contempt charge earlier this year.

When Aguilar’s bench trial before Bakalis began last summer, Meza, convicted of murder in 2008 by a jury, was ordered to testify and was given full immunity from further prosecution by Bakalis, but Meza continually declined.

State law requires Meza to serve 100 percent of the 45-year murder sentence, but only 50 percent of any contempt sentence. Creswell said he should be released when he is 68 years old.