Two men charged in the 2017 East Side Aurora shooting death of Rodolfo Rocha will be prosecuted separately, according to a court order filed Wednesday.
Kane County prosecutors had asked for the cases of Martin Garcia Jr., 23, of the 600 block of North Root Street, and Anthony Medina, 25, of the 1100 block of Gates Street, both charged with murder following Rocha’s killing, to be joined. Prosecutors also allege Medina shot Garcia, according to court documents.
Both men are accused of firing guns at Rocha, 34, of the 1100 block of Superior Street, about 12:30 a.m. June 10, 2017, on the 1100 block of Grove Street, prosecutors said in a March motion seeking to join the prosecutions of both cases. One of the shots Medina is accused of firing struck Garcia in the stomach, prosecutors stated.
Police said Garcia showed up at an area hospital about 15 minutes after Rocha was shot. Medina was initially charged in June and Garcia was charged in September. Medina is also charged with a count of aggravated battery with a firearm in which Garcia was the victim.
Prosecutors wrote that neither man had made statements implicating the other and that their defenses weren’t antagonistic.
“At this point there has not been a suggestion by either Medina or Garcia (that they) will profess their own innocence while pointing the finger at each other,” prosecutors stated in their motion.
The witnesses anticipated to testify against each man on the murder charges are identical, with the exception of the charge alleging Medina shot Garcia, for which additional witnesses speak to his appearance at Rush Copley Medical Center within 15 minutes of the Rocha shooting, according to prosecutors.
However, Garcia’s attorney, Jeffrey Kendall, stated in a court filing that the cases should not be joined because one defendant is accused of shooting the other. His client maintains his innocence and expects his trial to begin June 4, Kendall said Thursday.
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“There is nothing traditional about this request by the state’s attorney,” Kendall wrote in an April 11 filing objecting to the joining of the cases.
Medina’s attorneys did not respond to a message left with their office Thursday. Medina’s attorneys, of the law firm McNamee & Mahoney, filed a response Wednesday asking the court to deny the motion to join the cases.
“It can hardly be said that Martin Garcia participated in the act of being shot,” Medina’s attorneys wrote. “Conversely, should the prosecutions be joined, nothing would prohibit Martin Garcia from testifying in his defense and identifying Anthony Medina as the person that shot him, according to the prosecution’s theory of the case.”
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