Murder Conviction Reversed Because Joliet Man’s Lawyer Didn’t Do Good Enough Job

JOLIET, IL — A Joliet man’s 2013 murder conviction was reversed by the appellate court.
Jesus Zambrano, 26, was doing 45 years at Stateville when the appellate court sent his case back to Will County.

The appellate court ruled that Zambrano’s legal counsel was ineffective. Zambrano was represented by the law firm Chuck Bretz & Associates.

A jury found Zambrano guilty of murder in August 2013. He was convicted of killing 36-year-old Robert Gooch in May 2009.

Zambrano’s buddy Pedro Sanchez and Gooch were romantically involved with the same woman, Ellissa Hinton, according to trial testimony.

Hinton testified she and Gooch had watched the NBA playoffs at her place in the Larkin Village apartments and had gone to bed on the night of the murder. Later that evening, Gooch answered the apartment’s buzzer while she remained in the bedroom. She testified she heard Sanchez’s voice in the living room and someone saying “my girl” just before a single gunshot.

Hinton went to the living room to find Gooch lying on the floor and bleeding from his head. An autopsy later revealed Gooch died from a gunshot wound to the back of his skull. Gooch’s two young children were sleeping on a sofa bed in the living room at the time of the murder.

Another man, Christian Lopez, 26, was granted immunity and testified that he rode in an Oldsmobile Cutlass with Zambrano, Sanchez and a fourth man to the Larkin Village apartments, according to the appellate court. Zambrano was driving, he said.

After the arrived at the apartment complex, Lopez testified, Zambrano told him to get out of the car, then “tried to hand (him) a gun, which he refused to take,” the appellate court said.

“Lopez waited on the landing in the stairwell while Zambrano and Sanchez continued to the third floor,” Lopez said, according to the appellate court opinion. “Lopez heard a bang about five minutes later and fled, running back to the Cutlass.”

Sanchez, 37, was also convicted of murder and sentenced to 61 years in prison.

Lopez, on the other hand, avoided any charges in connection with the killing.

Lopez was on probation for an aggravated driving under the influence conviction at the time of Gooch’s murder, according to the appellate court, and later picked up four aggravated driving while license revoked cases.

“Three of the charges were dismissed after he testified in the Sanchez trial and the fourth was reduced to a misdemeanor,” the appellate court said.

“At the time of Zambrano’s trial, Lopez was charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, with a possible sentence of 10 years in the Department of Corrections,” the opinion said.

“He did not expect leniency for his pending charge,” the appellate court said. “He was not charged in Gooch’s murder and the State did not promise him anything in exchange for his testimony.”

Whether Lopez expected any leniency or not, and despite the state’s lack of promises, prosecutors still dismissed his weapons case.

The appellate court ruled that Zambrano’s “counsel failed to submit an accomplice witness jury instruction.”

“Counsel’s failure to submit an instruction on accomplice testimony prejudiced Zambrano by depriving the jury of critical information it needed to evaluate Lopez’s testimony,” the court said. “Because counsel’s performance was deficient and prejudiced Zambrano, we find that defense counsel’s failure to submit a jury instruction on accomplice testimony deprived Zambrano of effective assistance of counsel."