COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — With his brother already serving time for a 2005 murder, a man recently extradited from Mexico was ordered held on $3 million bond in connection with the same crime Friday.
Sergio Mendoza is charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of Manuel Gamboa Jr., officials said Friday.
Prosecutors said Gamboa, 24, had plans to go to the beach when he met with friends about 12:30 p.m. July 17, 2005, in the West Lawn neighborhood. Gamboa and three friends had gotten out of a car in the 7100 block of South Lawndale Avenue to talk to friends sitting inside another car when a van pulled up, said Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Amanda Pillsbury.
The then 21-year-old Mendoza and his brother, Jesus Mendoza, got out of the van and allegedly opened fire on the group, Pillsbury said. Gamboa was hit in his upper right back and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where he was pronounced dead the next day.
Pillsbury said an autopsy showed the bullet that pierced Gamboa's back hit his spinal cord before becoming lodged in his brain.
Witnesses on the scene identified Mendoza in a photo lineup and gave authorities a nickname of the shooter. Pillsbury said Mendoza has a "distinct tattoo" on his back with that nickname.
Following the shooting, Mendoza allegedly fled to Mexico City where FBI agents tracked him down and arrested him this year.
Mendoza's brother, Jesus, was also charged with first degree murder in the fatal shooting and was convicted in 2012 and sentenced to 50 years in jail, Pillsbury said.
Cook County Judge Donald Panarese Jr. ordered Mendoza held on $3 million bond.
