Joliet Man Gets 45 Years for Helping Friend Kill Romantic Rival

A Joliet man who accompanied his friend when he confronted and killed a romantic rival while the victim's two young children slept nearby was sentenced to 45 years in prison Wednesday.

• Sign up for the Joliet Patch newsletter
• Like Joliet Patch on Facebook

Hinton testified she and Gooch were in bed when they heard the apartment’s buzzer. Gooch went to answer the door, and Hinton said she could hear Sanchez's voice in the living room and the words "my girl" just before the gun was fired.

Hinton found Gooch on the floor with a gunshot wound to the back of the head, according to her testimony. Gooch's two young children asleep in a sofa bed in the same room.

Zambrano fled Joliet after the shooting and was arrested less than a week later in Texas near the Mexican border, according to a Chicago Tribune story.

A key part of the prosecution, according to a news release from the Will County state's attorney's office, were apartment complex security tapes that showed Zambrano and Sanchez arriving in Sanchez's car, going toward the building and then running back to the car.

A witness testified that he saw Zambrano "retrieve an object from under the hood of the car before the two entered the apartment complex," the release said.

“These two thugs committed an act of despicable brutality by gunning down an unarmed man while his two children were asleep in the same room,” State’s Attorney James Glasgow said in the release.

“Jesus Zambrano has been taken off our streets thanks to a first-rate investigation by the Joliet Police Department and top-notch trial work by prosecutors DanWalsh and Tricia McKenna.”