A sentence of 85 years in prison was handed down to Jesse Chabes Wednesday afternoon for the murder in perpetration of an arson of his girlfriend’s 87-year-old mother Maria Leal in her Portage apartment in 2024, as well as intimidation.
Porter Superior Court Judge Michael Fish spoke of the state’s argument about the horror endured Sept. 17, 2024, by the 87-year-old victim who needed a walker to get around. He also spoke of the danger Chabes, now 53, put the entire apartment complex in on the night he set Leal’s apartment on fire at Swanson Court Apartments in the 3300 block of Willowdale Court in Portage.
“She was ultimately defeated by the smoke and the poison of carbon monoxide,” Fish said. “This was a cowardly act. It was cruel.”
Chabes, of Gary, was found guilty of reckless homicide, murder in the perpetration of an arson, arson, and intimidation. He was also found to be a habitual offender. During sentencing, Fish spoke of Chabes’ 32 arrests, multiple felony convictions, and history of violence against women.
The state’s double jeopardy law required the merging of Chabes’ reckless homicide and arson convictions into a murder in the perpetration of an arson conviction. Fish sentenced him to 64 years for murder, 19 years for the enhancement for his status as a habitual offender, and two years for the intimidation conviction.
Chabes and Leal’s daughter were at a Lake Station bar together the night before the fire when she and Chabes, her boyfriend, got into an argument. They left separately, with Chabes driving his girlfriend’s vehicle, according to court documents.
Chabes had threatened to burn down the home of his girlfriend’s mother, records state.
A Crown Point Fire Department dog found traces of accelerant in the girlfriend’s bedroom. Leal was found inside the ground-floor apartment after the fire was extinguished.
Three members of her large family gave victim impact statements Wednesday afternoon. Her third-oldest daughter, Josie Garcia, spoke first.
“It was my wedding anniversary and she wished me a wonderful day,” Garcia said of the last time she spoke to her mother the day she died. She spoke of the kind and loving presence taken from Leal’s eight living children, 21 grandchildren, and 25 great-grandchildren. “I feel she could have lived as long a life as her father did, aged 96 years,” she said.
Leal’s second-youngest grandchild, Robert Leal, spoke next. “I love you, Jesse Chabes, and I forgive you,” he said. “And this is the love that my grandmother would have had for you as well.”
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Eldest granddaughter Raquel DeJesus spoke of “Ma.” “There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t feel the weight of her absence,” she said. “She had so much more life to live. You robbed our family of so many more memories with her.”
Porter County Deputy Prosecutor Mary Ryan had requested a total sentence of 82 years. “This defendant had no regard for life,” she said. “He is accustomed to being in charge and to being obeyed. He will now get a taste for what life was like around him.”
Chabes plans to appeal and will be assigned a public defender, having been determined to be indigent.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.