Feb. 09--A Cook County judge on Monday sentenced a 31-year-old man to two natural life sentences without parole for the 2009 killings of two men with a high-powered rifle, prosecutors said.
Ricardo Marchan, 31, had been reeling from a breakup with his girlfriend a few days earlier when he crossed paths with two men he had never met before in Humboldt Park on Aug. 2, 2009.
In October, Marchan was convicted of gunning down Pat Cregan, a newly married pizza delivery driver about to finish his shift, and Nick Hernandez, a recent high school graduate who was minutes away from his home.
Marchan, of the 4000 block of West Grand Avenue, shot the two men with a high-powered rifle while roaming West Side streets in his beat-up black Chevrolet Blazer.
After killing the men, Marchan used the same weapon to commit two separate armed robberies. Marchan did not know any of the victims involved in the attacks, prosecutors said.
Marchan was driving when he used a Hi-Point rifle to kill Hernandez, who was also driving in a car near the intersection of North Avenue and Western. Four minutes later, he shot and killed Cregan, who was in a vehicle near the intersection of Lemoyne and California avenues four blocks from where the first shooting occurred.
Within 20 minutes of the fatal shootings, Marchan robbed three people with the same rifle. In the third incident, Marchan fired the rifle at the victims during a robbery in which he stole the victims' cellphones and wallets. Chicago police were able to detain Marchan while the armed robbery was in progress and recovered the weapon.
According to prosecutors, forensic testing determined that the same rifle was used in all the crimes. Additionally, pod and red light cameras showed a vehicle that appeared to be Marchan's near both homicide scenes. Witnesses also identified the rifle as belonging to the Marchan.
Cook County Judge Lawrence Flood sentenced Marchan to the two terms of natural life for each murder conviction and an additional 26 years for the armed robbery charges during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago.
