2 Latin Kings Murder Vice Lord's Acquaintance In Joliet: Glasgow

JOLIET — Two Latin Kings street gang members, Elian Raya and John Roy Hernandez, are behind the June 1 late-night murder of Fernando Contreras, according to the pretrial release petition submitted by the Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow.

The petition said 31 gunshots were fired, killing Contreras and wounding two other men, amid a long-standing gang-related dispute with victim Angel Garcia, who survived the shooting.

In recent days, Raya and Hernandez were each arrested by Joliet police on first-degree murder charges surrounding the killing of 23-year-old Contreras; Garcia was also shot four times inside the house in the 400 block of Krakar Avenue, while another young man suffered a graze wound to his head, according to court documents.

The three Joliet east-side shooting victims were inside a home on June 1 watching a televised fight when Hernandez and Raya opened fire, discharging their guns a combined 31 times, according to prosecutors.

According to Assistant Will County State's Attorney Tricia McKenna, Contreras died after suffering one gunshot to his head. A neighbor saw two people run from the shooting and climb into the front seats of a dark four-door Nissan sedan.

Elian Raya's Nissan Sentra was captured on Joliet police squad car video about five minutes after the shooting, McKenna said.

Elian Raya and his associates are known to have a long-standing gang related dispute with Garcia and "gang related evidence establishes the motive for this shooting. John Hernandez and Elian Raya are known affiliates of the Latin King street gang, while Angel Garcia is aligned with the Vice Lords," McKenna informed the judge.

McKenna indicated that video footage obtained from several area homes near the shooting established that in the minutes up to the shooting, the suspects' car twice circled the block where the victim's house was located. Two people then got out of the car and walked toward the property and entered through an open fence, McKenna said. They stood on the property for two minutes and both people fired their guns several times. Then they ran north down Krakar Street.

Thirty-one shell casings were recovered, and tab tests revealed the shell casings came from two separate 9mm handguns, according to prosecutors.

According to McKenna, about 20 minutes before the shooting, Hernandez and Raya were both at a gas station together and video evidence obtained by Joliet police showed Raya's Nissan, Raya exited the driver's seat and Hernandez exiting the passenger seat.

"Their clothing is consistent with the clothing worn by the shooters on the video from the scene," McKenna pointed out. "Text messages on Raya's phone corroborate their reason for being at the store. Raya puts on a face mask consistent with the mask worn by one shooter on video. Multiple officers familiar with Hernandez can identify him as being the passenger in this vehicle based on this video."

Raya was captured on June 2 following a wild high-speed chase that ended in a Shorewood subdivision. Hernandez was arrested after police carried out a search warrant at his home on Saturday.