A gang member was sentenced to 30 years in prison Thursday for the murder of a 15-year-old girl, a crime a judge called an ”absolute tragedy of gang membership.”
Mark Vega, 17, of 4551 W. 55th St., was sentenced to prison for the March 13, 1986, murder of Christine Special, a Bogan High School sophomore.
Special was driving with a friend on 21st Street when Vega and another youth started making gang signs at them, Assistant State`s Attorneys Ernest DiBenedetto and Rick Beuke said.
The other youth, Robert Sanchez, 18, fired at the car and a single bullet hit Special in the head. Sanchez, 2609 W. 21st Pl., who pleaded guilty to the murder earlier, is serving a 35-year prison sentence. Vega, his accomplice, was also convicted of the murder.
”My heart absolutely goes out to the family of Christine Special,” Cook County Criminal Court Judge Michael Getty said. He told Vega that ”people who hold to the gang macho must be made to realize . . . it will put them where you`re going–to the penitentiary.”
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Special`s family members said they wanted the death penalty for the girl`s killers.
Defense lawyer Barry Spector argued that Vega had never been arrested before the murder, was not the actual gunman and is very remorseful about the girl`s death.
Vega himself told the judge: ”I know you have to send me to prison. . . . I`m going to study and hopefully come out a productive person. I do have feelings for the victim`s family.”