Crime & Safety

Man Charged With Gunning Down 15yo Ex-Girlfriend Beat Another 15yo Girlfriend With Bottle & Pipe

The Cicero man charged with a Romeoville teen's murder viciously beat another teenage girl less than three years before.

A 23-year-old Cicero man charged with gunning down a former teenage girlfriend viciously beat another young lover with a beer bottle and metal pipe less than three years before.

Erick Maya remains in custody at the Will County jail in connection with the Feb. 13 gun attack on 15-year-old Briana Valle and her mother, Alicia Guerrero, 33.

Briana died after taking two bullets to the head. Guerrero was shot in the neck and survived.

Maya met the Romeoville High School freshman on Facebook, according to a petition Guerrero wrote for a protective order in December. In the petition, Guerrero described her daughter and Maya as "boyfriend/girlfriend."

Less than three years before allegedly murdering Briana, Maya savagely attacked another 15-year-old girlfriend. He was arrested in October 2011 and charged with aggravated domestic battery, armed violence and aggravated battery in connection with the assault from six months earlier.

Berwyn police had been unable to track Maya down after the attack but eventually picked him up at the Maywood courthouse where he was appearing on a misdemeanor marijuana case.

Maya caught the felony for putting his girlfriend in the hospital with bruises, a blood clot in her forearm and possible ligament damage, according to a Berwyn Police Department report.

Berwyn detectives interviewed the teen at MacNeal Hospital and were told how she was beaten by Maya.

The girl, whose name was blacked out of the report, told police she was "confronted by her ex-boyfriend Erick Maya," who "began badmouthing her and blaming her for giving him a sexually transmitted disease."

The police report said the teen "argued back and blamed him for cheating on her." Maya then "became angry and began punching her in the face" before he "hit her over her head with a glass beer bottle."

The teen said she tried to fight back, according to the report, but Maya "grabbed a metal pipe and struck her several times all over her body" as she fell to the ground.

Maya then ran away, the report said. His teenage girlfriend believed he was scared away when he saw a man in the area talking on a cell phone.

A Berwyn detective asked the girl's father "if he wished to pursue charges regarding criminal sexual assault," since Maya was 20 at the time and his daughter was 15, the report said.

The father said he did "wish to sign criminal complaints," the report said, but since "all the sexual activity took place (at the girl's mother's home) in Cicero, that part of the case would have to be turned over to Cicero PD."

No sex charges are on file against Maya in Cook County.

Maya ended up pleading guilty to the aggravated domestic battery charge. The other charges were dismissed. He was sentenced to 60 days in the Cook County Jail and 30 months probation.

Maya missed a Feb. 6 court appearance for a probation status check. Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Kristin Piper asked Judge Gregory Ginex to issue a warrant for Maya's arrest but the judge refused, according to a court transcript. Ginex pointed out the "weather has been very bad" and scheduled another date.

Briana was shot in the head a week later.

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