Gabriel Guardiola / Photo from Chicago Police
BY LEEANN SHELTON
Sun-Times Media
Gabriel Guardiola was sentenced to more than 50 years in prison Monday for the murder of a friend who refused to get into a car with him after a night of partying.
Guardiola, 38, had been convicted of first-degree murder for fatally shooting Cicero resident Ricardo Rivera on Feb. 24, 2013. On Monday, Judge Joseph M. Claps sentenced him to 55 years in prison, according to court records.
He will receive credit for more than two years spent behind bars while awaiting trail, according to court records.
Prosecutors said the pair belonged to the same motorcycle club, and Guardiola had picked up Rivera hours earlier so they could go to a strip club.
After leaving the club, Guardiola got into his car as Rivera walked ahead down the street, prosecutors said.
Guardiola told his friend to get into his car, and eventually called a mutual friend where he said what he would do to Rivera if Rivera kept walking along Cicero Avenue, prosecutors said.
Rivera, 31, called the same friend before walking to a parking lot in the 100 block of South Cicero Avenue, where Guardiola got out of his car, shot Rivera in the head and drove away, prosecutors said.
Rivera, of the 4900 block of West 23rd Place in Cicero, died at the scene, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Surveillance cameras captured Guardiola firing the weapon, prosecutors said.
Ricardo Rivera
Police allegedly found a gun in Guardiola’s residence in the 1500 block of North Monticello Avenue and gunshot residue on his clothing, prosecutors said.
At the time of his arrest, Guardiola was a married father of six and worked as a custodian at Lane Tech College Prep, according to a public defender.