Chicago man found guilty in murder of elderly Crete man

A Chicago man has been convicted for the 2014 murder of an elderly man in south suburban Crete Township.

Jesus Larosa was found guilty Tuesday on three counts of first degree murder, according to the Will County state’s attorney’s office. He faces a mandatory life sentence in prison.

On May 14, 2014, Larosa beat and strangled Alfred Hilton, 85, with a telephone cord in Hilton’s home in the 3200 block of Bemes Road, the state’s attorney’s office said. The home was later found “ransacked” with several of Hilton’s possessions stolen.

Larosa fled to Alabama and was identified in March 2016 as a suspect in the murder by Will County Sheriff’s detectives, the state’s attorney’s office said. A multi-state manhunt ensued and Larosa, who was 47 at the time of the murder, was arrested a month later in a Walmart parking lot in Dallas, Texas.

Larosa had already served 20 years in prison for a prior murder conviction, and was out on parole when he killed Hilton, the state’s attorney’s office said.

“The guilty verdict here ensures that this twice-convicted murderer driven by an abandoned and malignant heart will spend the rest of his days in a cold, dark prison cell,” Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow said in a statement

Larosa’s sentencing is set for May 17.