When authorities charged Maria Gomez with shooting a guy at point-blank range outside a River North pub in the summer of 2021, her lawyer claimed that she acted under “intense provocation.”
That defense became ineffective over time. She pleaded guilty to three charges before Judge John Lyke and was sentenced to 28 years in jail yesterday.
Prosecutors said Chicago police surveillance film showed Gomez wearing a leopard print dress and firing a revolver in the 400 block of North LaSalle around 10:21 p.m. on August 29, 2021.
Moments thereafter, the 32-year-old victim approached a group of people gathered outside Boss Bar, 420 North Clark, and requested assistance. He’d been shot in the neck.
According to authorities, while three spectators were treating the bleeding man’s injury, Gomez approached and shot him again at point-blank range in the back. Prosecutors said the gunshot went through the man’s back, lacerated his liver, and exited through his belly.
Once again, surveillance cameras captured the shooting.
Police heard the gunfire and came to the scene. Witnesses pointed them to Gomez, who was wearing a leopard print dress and flip-flops approximately a street away. The officers allegedly discovered a loaded weapon in her purse. They found one shell casing outside the bar and five more on LaSalle Street.
Gomez pleaded guilty yesterday to armed violence, which was reduced from attempted murder; aggravated battery with a dangerous weapon, which was reduced from aggravated battery by discharge of a handgun; and felon in possession of a firearm.
Lyke sentenced her to 28 years for armed assault and five years concurrent for the other two crimes, according to court documents.
Prosecutors say Gomez was convicted of misdemeanor assault in 2015 after biting someone’s finger off during an altercation. The case was initially charged as felony aggravated battery causing grave bodily harm, but prosecutors agreed to reduce the charge in a plea agreement.