Appellate court affirms life sentence for man in Addison armed robbery

Illinois' Second District Appellate Court has affirmed the conviction of a Northlake man that led to a lifelong prison sentence in 2015.

Luis Moreta, 46, was convicted of armed robbery with a firearm on Dec. 5, 2014, after a jury ruled he stole $3,700 from a man he met on Craigslist.

Because that was his third violent conviction, DuPage County Judge John Kinsella sentenced Moreta as a habitual criminal to a term of natural life in prison.

On Dec. 2, 2011, the victim drove to meet Moreta in the parking lot of an Addison apartment complex on the 600 block of Meadow Boulevard to purchase a black Suzuki GSXR motorcycle he had seen advertised by Moreta on Craigslist.

After meeting one of Moreta's accomplices, the victim and two friends were escorted to the back of the parking lot where Moreta and another man, both with their faces covered and wearing hooded sweatshirts, jumped out of a van and held guns to their heads. Moreta and his accomplices then robbed the victim of the $3,700 he had brought to purchase the motorcycle and fled.

In his appeal, Moreta argued the trial court improperly allowed a police officer to testify about cellular technology and that prosecutors argued improperly during closing arguments.

In its affirmation, the appellate court found that the officer "did not testify about 'cellular technology' … nor did he 'interpret' cellular phone records. He merely plotted the information from cellular records onto several maps."

In rejecting Moreta's claims concerning the prosecutor's closing arguments, the appellate court found that "Our review of the complained-of arguments does not reveal clear and obvious errors of any sort, let alone such seriousness that they affected the fairness of the defendant's trial and challenged the integrity of the judicial process."