A Round Lake Beach man who fatally stabbed a woman, apparently over a pawned video game system, was found guilty Thursday of first-degree murder and home invasion, according to Lake County prosecutors.
Jurors returned guilty verdicts in the trial of Alonzo Campos for the 2019 murder and home invasion in the death of Mariana Castro-Tellez, 48, in the Round Lake Beach house where she lived with her parents and two children.
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The panel deliberated about two hours before finding Campos, 23, guilty following a trial that began Monday in the Lake County courtroom of Judge James Booras. The judge set a December status date when Campos’ sentencing may be scheduled.
Campos is facing up to 60 years in prison.
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Authorities said he got into an altercation with Castro-Tellez at about 4:30 a.m. on May 17, 2019, allegedly over a pawned video game system, and shot her with a BB gun before stabbing her.
The victim’s daughter, Jessica Reyes, 17, testified Tuesday that Campos was an acquaintance of her brother and that she had seen him at the family’s Cherokee Lane home several months before the slaying. The brother was in the Lake County jail on the date of the murder.
Reyes said she was awakened that morning by the sounds of her mother screaming, and she came out of her bedroom to see the mortally wounded woman coming up the stairs. Castro-Tellez entered the bedroom of her parents, and said “Dad! Dad!” before collapsing, the daughter said.
Nobody in the residence saw Campos, but police said they were able to identify him on surveillance videos that showed him walking the half-mile from the murder scene to his home.
Police recovered a bloody kitchen knife in a yard several doors down. Castro-Tellez’s father told jurors Tuesday that he had bought the knife just a few weeks before at a Wal-Mart.
Reyes told the jury that her mother, a widow, arose early every day to go to her job as a house cleaner.
