Matthew C. Cruz will spend 30 years in prison for a brazen daytime gang murder

16-year-old will spend 30 years in prison for a brazen daytime gang murder in a crowded strip mall across the street from the police station in the Chicago suburb of Addison. DuPage County Circuit Court Judge Blanche Hill Fawell sentenced Matthew C. Cruz on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to aggravated battery with a firearm. A co-defendant, Jhony Aragon, also 16, is serving a 22-year prison term for first-degree murder.
Prosecutors say 14-year-old Francisco J. Baiza was slain on Aug. 21, 2007, at Addison's Green Meadows Shopping Center, where he had been applying for a job. Baiza died after being shot three times in the chest and stomach. Police soon tracked down Aragon and Cruz in a nearby apartment complex. All three youths lived in Addison.