An Indiana judge sentenced a Chicago man Thursday to 70 years in prison for killing Damien Abenante-Villa, 14, as he walked to baseball fields with a group of teens in Whiting after his cousin’s birthday party.
A jury convicted Leonardo Nunez, 22, last month of murder and a gun enhancement. His lawyer said in court he would appeal.
Whiting Police responded on March 23, 2024, to the 1600 block of La Porte Avenue.
The Lake County Coroner’s Office said the teen was shot in the chest. His death was ruled a homicide. No guns were recovered.
Abenante-Villa’s mother Amanda said after the two-hour hearing Thursday she believed Nunez was targeting her nephew’s friend.
Courtney Abenante, the victim’s aunt, spoke in court of the family’s “unimaginable loss.”
“He deserved to be a child,” she said. “He deserved to grow up.”
A half-dozen of Nunez’s relatives spoke on his behalf in court, who described him as devoted to his family. They spoke extensively on their loss if he went to prison. Many expressed disbelief that he would commit such a crime, noting Nunez’s brother had been killed and his father died in a car crash when he was a toddler.
Multiple relatives said they believed Nunez was innocent.
“I don’t want to lose this one to the system,” Nunez’s mother said, asking Judge Natalie Bokota to “have a heart.”
Deputy Prosecutor Shannon Phillips said Nunez fired “multiple rounds” at a group of six kids, without caring he might hit someone else on that street.
They “watched (Abenante-Villa die) on the sidewalk, she said.
She cited three recent jail violations, including one where he allegedly cursed at a jail staffer after being told he needed to put on a shirt.
“One life was taken and one was wasted,” Phillips said, of Abenante-Villa’s death and Nunez.
Defense lawyer John Cantrell argued Nunez’s girlfriend’s son would suffer if he spent decades in prison and noted Nunez watched his father die in the crash.
Nunez declined to speak in court.
Bokota noted Abenante-Villa was likely “not the intended target” and the other kids watched him suffer before paramedics took him to a hospital.
“A person can be one way with family,” she said, “and commit a heinous crime.”
After the hearing, Abenante-Villa’s parents Amanda Abenante and Alex Villa, who held their younger son, 1, said Abenante-Villa was a “great kid”, “homebody”, trickster and jokester, who wanted to be a sports analyst. He loved football and his favorite team — the L.A. Rams.
His mother said she enrolled him at a Chicago Catholic High School where he was a freshman. The school planned to give her his diploma, she said. He loved eating and playing video games.
They believed their son, who was 5’11”, was walking ahead and was hit “because he was so big,” they said.
Abenante-Villa’s parents buried him with gifts, including a basketball jersey and sports cards.
Villa was wrongfully convicted in the death of off-duty Chicago Police Officer Clifton Lewis — a fact alluded to in court by one of Nunez’s relatives. He went to prison when his son was three and was released six months after his son’s death, he said.
Amanda had to tell him over the phone, Villa said.
“It was the hardest thing I’ll ever have to do in my life, more than the wrongful conviction,” he said outside the courthouse. He didn’t eat for several days, he said.
After his release, he went straight to his son’s grave.
“He had a lot of dreams,” Villa said.
Nunez’s charging affidavit shows a witness told police he heard two “pops” before seeing a male in a red sweatshirt running from the scene.
Security footage about a block away captured a black Nissan driving toward Indianapolis Boulevard just after the shooting. The vehicle was registered to Nunez’s relative.
The driver was a “younger, light-skinned” man with “distinct facial features.” Police matched the footage to Nunez’s BMV photo.
A witness told a Griffith Police officer he was with Abenante-Villa when he was shot. He had gotten into a fight in 2023 with “Adonis,” who police later learned was Nunez’s brother, according to the charging affidavit.
Nunez went to Advocate Trinity Hospital in Chicago for a gunshot wound the next day, the affidavit alleges.
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