A Will County judge Tuesday refused to reduce a 40-year prison term he gave a Joliet man who pleaded guilty to shooting a police officer in the back.
“I am still convinced I imposed an appropriate sentence,” said Judge Thomas Ewert after listening to attorney Erica Thompson’s emotional plea for a reduction in jail time for her client Ralph Garcia.
In August, Garcia, 32, was sentenced for the September 1992 shooting of Joliet Officer Dale Underwood, who is now back on duty full time.
Garcia, who has spent 12 of the last 14 years behind bars, was originally charged with attempted murder, but in a plea agreement with Will County State’s Atty. James Glasgow, he agreed to plead guilty to a charge of aggravated battery with a firearm for a promise that Glasgow would not seek an extended jail term of 60 years.
Garcia would have been eligible for such a sentence because of his criminal history, which included convictions on seven felonies. He also had served 8 years of a 10-year prison term for attempted murder 11 years ago.
Although Garcia agreed to waive his rights to an appeal, Ewert said at the sentencing that he felt “unbound” by that part of the plea agreement and that Garcia could appeal.
Thompson, who represented Garcia on Tuesday, said she would take his case to the 3rd District Appellate Court in Ottawa.
If the courts were to erase the plea agreement, the state could again charge Garcia with attempted murder and ask for a 60-year prison term upon conviction.
Thompson’s plea to Ewert was based on what she called an “attachment” for Garcia and his problems. The sentence, she said, was “excessive” punishment for a crime that was caused by Garcia’s alcohol problem.
“There is no question he is going to do serious time (in prison),” she said. “But 20 years is sufficient. A person can change.”
First Assistant State’s Atty. Charles Bretz said his response was one of “outrage and nausea” and that saying ” `I was drunk at the time is no excuse.’ “
Bretz supported Ewert’s decision. “You gave him every consideration possible,” he said, adding that Thompson’s “emotional attachment is not a legal basis for reducing a sentence.”
Meanwhile, Greg Glomb, president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Joliet, said that while police officers were satisfied that such appeals must run their course, he hopes the “judicial system won’t soften the penalty.”
