Former Villa Park man learns sentence after breaking into home, brutally stabbing girlfriend to death
Marco-Antonio Rubio
DUPAGE COUNTY, Ill. - A former Villa Park man was sentenced to 70 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections this week after he stabbed his girlfriend to death in 2021.
On March 5 of this year, Marco-Antonio Rubio, 29, entered a blind plea of guilty to one count of first-degree murder.
At about 9:25 p.m. on May 19, 2021, Villa Park police officers responded to a call of a disturbance in the 300 block of North Priceton Drive in Villa Park.
When officers arrived, they knocked on the door and heard crying coming from the inside of the residence.
Officers entered the home and found two girls, between the ages of three and six, and a one-year-old boy. Additionally, officers found a trail of blood in the living room that led to the victim, 24-year-old Esmeralda DeLuna, lying in the kitchen with an eight-inch butcher knife in her leg and stab wounds to her torso.
She was taken to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead the next morning.
While investigating the murder, police learned that Rubio was served with an Order of Protection on May 7, with DeLuna named as the petitioner. The order required that Rubio move out of the Princeton home.
Police then determined that Rubio violated that order on May 19 and went to the Princeton address, broke into the home and stabbed DeLuna multiple times.
He was taken into custody the next morning. On May 21, 2021, he appeared in bond court, where his bond was set at $3 million. He has remained in custody since that time.
"On May 19, 2021, three young children, lost their mother, Esmeralda DeLuna, to domestic violence," said DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin. "Yesterday afternoon, the children’s father, Marco Rubio, received a seventy-year sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections for her brutal murder. While what essentially amounts to a life sentence behind bars cannot erase the vicious murder of a loving mother, perhaps Esmeralda’s surviving family and friends can find some measure of solace knowing justice was delivered in Esmeralda’s name. This was an extremely emotional case, and I thank Assistant State’s Attorneys Louisa Nuckolls, Kathleen Rowe and Michael McBride for their efforts in holding Mr. Rubio accountable for his actions."
A judge handed down Rubio's 70-year sentence on Wednesday. He will be required to serve 100 percent of his sentence before being eligible for parole.