Following a grueling four-day sentencing hearing, DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin has confirmed that Tia Brewer, a former Wheaton resident, has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for her involvement in the brutal 2018 murder of Luis Guerrero in West Chicago. Brewer, only 16 at the time of the crime, faced a heavy sentence after pleading guilty to both First-Degree Murder and Aggravated Kidnapping, as reported by DuPage County's official announcement yesterday.

The sentencing, delivered by Judge Brian Telander, placed Brewer, now 22, into the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) for a crime committed alongside Jesus Jurado-Correa and Saul Ruiz, both formerly of West Chicago, and Francisco Alvarado, the latter's sentencing is still pending, scheduled for February 26, 2025. With their cooperation resulting in guilty pleas to Conspiracy to Commit First-Degree Murder, Jurado-Correa, and Ruiz received lesser sentences of fifteen and ten years respectively. Despite prosecutors seeking a life sentence, Brewer's judgment fell short, with thirty-four years for murder and an additional six for kidnapping.

On the fateful day of August 14, 2018, it was the astute observation by the West Chicago Fire Department personnel during a nearby exercise, that discovered the smoldering remains of what was later identified as 18-year-old Guerrero's body. This led to a swift police investigation that tied Brewer, along with her co-defendants, to a meticulously planned and executed homicide. According to the investigation findings, Brewer lured Guerrero to the scene only for Alvarado to brutally ambush him, leading to a harrowing sequence of strangulation, stabbing, and setting the victim ablaze, not once, but twice after he attempted to escape the agonizing scene. Guerrero's ordeal only ended when Brewer and Alvarado further assaulted and ultimately returned him to the fire.

As "the unconscionable degree of depravity exhibited by Tia Brewer and her co-defendants in this case" could hardly be fathomed, State's Attorney Berlin described the crime in his thirty-seven years of experience as particularly heinous. He expressed his sentiment in a statement obtained by the official county announcement: "In my thirty-seven years as a prosecutor, I would be hard-pressed to recall such a vicious, gruesome murder of an innocent man." Berlin further acknowledged that no sentence could alleviate the grief of Guerrero's loved ones while extending gratitude towards his legal team for their handling of this disturbing case. The cumulative sentence will see Brewer serve her time at 100% for the murder charge and 85% for the kidnapping charge, sequentially.

With Brewer's sentencing, a chapter closes on this harrowing crime that shook the community of West Chicago.