Luis Lomeli’s one-time girlfriend admitted she drank beer while driving, did cocaine and showed a willingness to find a robbery target during what turned out to be the start of a 2011 crime spree.
Sylvia Enriquez, 28, offered those details to jurors during the second day of Lomeli’s trial on attempted murder and armed robbery charges in the May 1, 2011, stabbing of Rolando Perez outside the bar entrance to La Villita Liquors on East New York Street in Aurora. Tuesday’s testimony in Kane County Court from police officers, a paramedic, store employees and even an Illinois Department of Corrections officer who happened to be at the bar focused on the discovery of Perez face down in the parking lot.
An Aurora firefighter/paramedic said Perez suffered 15 to 19 stab wounds in his upper back and shoulder area and was later treated in the intensive care unit at an Aurora hospital. The initial police officer on the scene spotted Perez’s SUV in the parking lot with the driver’s side door open and blood visible on it. The Illinois Department of Corrections worker said he had stepped outside to retrieve his phone charger when he saw Perez collapse and three people running from the area.
However, Enriquez painted the broader picture of how Lomeli and two other men – Jason and Joshua Ward – ended up at La Villita to “make some money,” a phrase Enriquez said Lomeli used as a reference to robbery.
“Basically he said how we’re gonna go certain places (and) look around and see who had money,” Enriquez said.
Enriquez explained how she and Lomeli, who lived together in Lomeli’s mother’s house in Sheridan, hung out with the Ward brothers in Ottawa for awhile on that Sunday night before the group ended up in Aurora in Lomeli’s mother’s car. Enriquez testified she was behind the wheel throughout the night, even drinking beer they picked up at a gas station. They eventually traded vehicles with the mother of one of Joshua Ward’s children before heading toward La Villita. She said she parked the SUV in the nearby Burger King lot as Lomeli and Jason Ward went inside, bought beer and scoped out possible targets.
The plan, according to Enriquez, was for her to approach a man who appeared to have money and flirt to give him the idea she wanted to have sex. Enriquez couldn’t get into the La Villita bar without her ID, so she settled for chatting up a man in the lobby who didn’t pan out as a target. She returned to the parking lot to hear sirens and notice the SUV was gone. Enriquez said she located Lomeli and the Wards at Lomeli’s aunt’s house nearby.
“They had blood on them,” she said of Jason Ward and Lomeli. “They were washing their hands. Luis was cleaning off a knife. I did ask him what had happened … Basically, (he said) ‘he made money.'”
She saw Lomeli with a pocket knife, as well as money with “blood on it” that he washed and then put in the microwave. The group swapped vehicles again to retrieve Lomeli’s mother’s car after Lomeli split up the money, she said. They stopped to pick up cocaine in Aurora, and then decided to target a one-time Enriquez boyfriend in Montgomery who owed her money. After she lured the man to open his front door, the Wards and Lomeli rushed the house, but ultimately walked away with no money, she said.
Jurors did not hear about the crime spree’s next phase – a drug robbery turned murder in LaSalle County for which the Wards and Lomeli are each serving prison sentences for their involvement – but did learn the group briefly stayed at two Aurora-area hotels over the next day and that Joshua Ward left at one point, which caused concern.
“We felt Josh was going to say something,” Enriquez said, which is why they switched hotels.
Enriquez was arrested while going out to pick up food on May 3, 2011. In December 2012, she agreed to testify against the others in a deal that saw her plead guilty to criminal trespass to a residence and residential burglary in exchange for a two-year prison sentence. The latter charge will be dropped if prosecutors are satisfied she testified truthfully.
Lomeli attorney Ron Haskell hinged his cross-examination of Enriquez on the fact she got a deal, suggesting her testimony was merely a “story” to help avoid further prison time.
“I’m also saying the truth … . It’s the truth,” Enriquez said.
The Ward brothers previously pleaded guilty to their role in the La Villita case. Jason Ward received a 15-year sentence after admitting to an attempted murder charge in January. That sentence will be consecutive to the 30-year prison term he picked up in the LaSalle case.
In September, Joshua Ward pleaded guilty to armed robbery in the Aurora case and was given probation, although he remains in prison on his own 30-year sentence related to the LaSalle killing. Joshua Ward served as a key witness for prosecutors against Lomeli in that case.
More Top Picks Jbl Charge 4
Testimony will continue on Wednesday.
Dan Campana is a freelance writer for The Beacon-News