A Chicago man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for trying to kill a Wilmette contractor so the man and his nephew could steal the contractor’s tools, prosecutors said Monday.
Jose Castillo, 30, of the 4700 block of North Sacramento Avenue, Chicago, appeared before Lake County Circuit Judge Christopher Starck, who sentenced him, said Assistant State’s Atty. Christy Bishop.
Castillo’s nephew, David Farfan, 18, of the same address, was sentenced to 18 years in prison last month for his involvement in the beating, Bishop said.
Both had pleaded guilty to attempted murder after their attorneys negotiated sentences that ensured their clients would not receive more than 25 years in prison. The maximum prison sentence for a Class X felony such as attempted murder is 30 years.
The contractor, Ariea Roth, submitted a victim-impact statement detailing the Aug. 8 attack he suffered at the hands of the men he had come to trust as good workers. One minute, he wrote, he was examining a wall to determine the stud layout.
“Next thing I remember, I was waking up and asking, `Why are you doing this to me?'” Roth wrote. “David answered, `You better shut up if you know what’s good for you,’ and I passed out again. I woke up in my van wrapped in plastic with garbage, materials and tools on top of me.”
Bishop said Castillo and Farfan owed a drug dealer $140 for marijuana and had decided to steal Roth’s air compressor and nail gun to pay the debt.
Armed with a crowbar, they struck Roth repeatedly over the head, neck and back and had planned to dump his body in Chicago, but panicked, placed him in his van and fled, leaving the tools behind, Bishop said.
Roth, who is recovering from the attack, regained consciousness, got out of the van and summoned help.
“It is difficult to comprehend or to understand that any human being can do such things to another human being,” Roth wrote. Prosecutors read his statement in court on Friday.
Bishop said both men must serve 85 percent of their prison sentences before they will be eligible for release.