Teen who fatally stabbed 15-year-old boy gets probation, community service
CHICAGO - A teenager who pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing a 15-year-old suburban Chicago boy has been sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.
A Cook County judge on Monday also ordered the now 17-year-old high school senior and his parents to participate in counseling.
The defendant, who was charged as a juvenile, had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the August 2020 stabbing death of 15-year-old Elias Valdez in Glenview, The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald reported.
Authorities said Valdez, a Glenbrook South High School student, had intended to buy marijuana from the then 16-year-old defendant, but Valdez tried to take the drugs without paying for them.
The defendant chased Valdez and a struggle followed in which the defendant stabbed Valdez with a utility tool that contained a blade. Valdez died at a hospital the same day.
Valdez’s relatives wanted the defendant charged with first-degree murder and held in custody, but instead, he was charged with second-degree murder and also held on home monitoring.
Those orders sparked accusations of preferential treatment and led to protests at the Glenview Police Department and the Skokie courthouse last year.
Valdez’s mother, Marcela Fierros, said in a statement read Monday in court by a pastor that she did not believe justice was served by probation and community service.
"When the defendant stabbed my son, he stabbed the heart of my family," she added in her statement.