Cold-case murders: August 2007 Archives

BY MIKE CETERA

Aurora resident Al Signorelli asks an important, if somewhat loaded, question in comparing the response to Planned Parenthood's new clinic with how the community responds to violence: When will residents show the same passion and become outraged when a young man or woman is slain?

From Signorelli's call to OpenLine:

While (abortion) always elicits passion on both sides, it totally amazes me that crime and violence, our safety, and most importantly that of our children, does not. Where are the protesters when the bullets are flying and people are killed on our streets? What about those lives? Where is the outrage?

BY DAVE PARRO

Despite some conflicting testimony, shady witnesses, and no murder weapon or physical evidence, a Kane County jury this afternoon delivered a guilty verdict in the first of Aurora's cold-case murders.

The conviction of Jose Salinas in a 2000 gang shooting bodes well for prosecutors, who still have the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in 22 other old murder cases still on the docket. They will have the same difficult task in convicting the other 31 suspects as they did with Salinas just because of the nature of cold cases.

Each jury will obviously be different, but this verdict should give prosecutors and the Aurora Police Department confidence as they prepare for the other cases and make even more arrests.

BY MIKE CETERA

He once threatened violence against police, but for years now he's been working for them. He once held the titles "enforcer" and "terminator" as a member of an Aurora street gang. Now he goes by the less menacing title of "informant."

Orlando Rivera is no angel. Yet he's one of the men helping law enforcement officials seek to close long cold murder cases in Aurora. This week he testified for the prosecution in a murder case from 2000.

Make no mistake, Rivera isn't doing this simply because he's had a change of heart about being a gang member. Court records show authorities have forgiven past crimes and have paid him handsomely for his services.

Rivera is a clear example of the type of people police need to cultivate to make a case in gang crimes. It's a game cops must play with caution.