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| Killer of 2 gets death penalty; execution ruling is first for judge |
| By Chicago Tribune |
| Published: 03/15/2004 |
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A Chicago man who pleaded guilty to killing two people and partially dismembering their bodies received the death penalty last Tuesday--the second to be handed out in Cook County (Ill.) since former Gov. George Ryan cleared Death Row. Judge Bertina Lampkin told of 27-year-old Teodoro Baez's abused and drug-riddled childhood before describing in detail how he brutally killed Juan Estrada, 21, of Cicero, and Janet Mena, 24, of Berwyn in a drug dispute more than four years ago. "I've been a judge for almost 17 years, and this is one of the most ghastly set of facts I've had to deal with," Lampkin said before sentencing Baez to death. Last Tuesday was the first time Lampkin, who said capital punishment should be imposed in only the most heinous cases, has ever ruled in favor of execution. Anti-death penalty activist Jane Bohman said she was surprised by Lampkin's decision, considering Baez's history of chronic abuse and mental illness. Baez decided to kill Estrada, a known gang member, while the two argued on Aug. 5, 1999, Lampkin said. Baez shot Estrada multiple times before using a sword to stab him repeatedly, sever both his legs and partially cut off one of his arms, she said. Mena was an innocent bystander whose death Lampkin said last Tuesday was almost too difficult for her to discuss. Baez is the first person to receive the death penalty in the Criminal Courts Building since Gov. George Ryan commuted the death sentences of more than 150 Death Row inmates before leaving office in 2003. In a Bridgeview courthouse last month, Ricardo Harris, who was convicted in the 1999 slayings of two Oak Lawn liquor store employees, was the first person in Cook County to be sentenced to death since Ryan's action. |
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