Chicago woman gets 30 years for 2009 beating death of Joliet man

A Chicago woman who beat a Joliet man to death before dumping his body in a local park was sentenced to 30 years in prison Tuesday.

Will County Judge Carla Alessio Policandriotes gave 31-year-old Jessica Ocampo 20 years for the murder of Eugenio Rosales and 10 years for armed robbery. The sentences will be served back to back.

Ocampo said “I’m really sorry for what I did” before the judge handed down the sentence, which had been agreed upon by prosecutors and Ocampo’s attorney. She must serve the full murder sentence but just 85 percent of the time she earned for armed robbery.

A Lockport man discovered Rosales’ undressed body while driving through Pilcher Park on Oct. 17, 2009.

Police said he met Ocampo and her cousin, the now 35-year-old Elvida Garcia of Joliet, a day earlier at a bar close to his apartment in the 100 block of East Jefferson Street. He agreed to give Garcia $50 for sex.

Later, police said, Rosales, Garcia and Ocampo went to Garcia’s house in the 600 block of Jerome Avenue to keep partying. Police said the women hatched a plan to beat Rosales and rob him of what turned out to be $76.

Ocampo originally told police Rosales was beaten by Garcia’s son, Jesus Ocampo, who was 16 at the time.

Jesus Ocampo told officers he saw Jessica Ocampo beat Rosales with a bat, though, and he said he helped her dump the body in Pilcher Park. Garcia also told police she left to go to McDonald’s and learned when she returned that Jessica Ocampo had beaten Rosales with a bat.

Police arrested Jessica Ocampo days later at her home in the city’s Chicago Lawn neighborhood. She pleaded guilty to Rosales’ murder in September.

Garcia also pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in November, records show, and is serving a 25-year prison sentence. Jesus Ocampo, now 18, pleaded guilty to armed robbery and received eight years in prison.