The getaway driver who whisked the gunman away from a botched gang shooting that left an 8-year-old girl dead as she held her mother’s hand in Little Village is being sent to prison for 20 years.
Xavier Guzman, 30, pleaded guilty to murder on Friday and received the sentence from Judge James Novy. He is required to serve every day of his two-decade sentence. Novy recently sentenced the gunman in the case, Emilio Corripio, to 27 years.
Gut-wrenching surveillance video showed young Melissa Ortega holding her mother’s hand as they crossed Pulaski at 26th Street when Corripio began firing down the block just before 3 p.m. on January 22, 2022. A shot intended for Corripio’s gang rivals struck Melissa in the head, and she immediately collapsed in front of a bank entrance.
Guzman was a suburban cab driver at the time of the shooting. Officials said he was off-duty when he picked Corripio up in the cab less than an hour before the shooting. Prosecutors said the pair saw two men throwing up signs for the rival Two-Six street gang on the corner of Komensky and 26th Street, and Corripio decided to circle the block.
Videos allegedly showed his cab pulling into a nearby alley and also showed Corripio walking out of the alley to open fire on the Two-Six. A bullet struck one of the rivals, a 29-year-old man, in the back. Other bullets slammed into a parked car occupied by a 47-year-old man and his 9-year-old daughter.
Hearing the gunfire, Melissa looked over her shoulder, and she and her mom quickened their pace to cross the intersection and take cover. They were inches from the doorway of a Fifth Third bank when Melissa, still holding her mom’s hand, was struck by a bullet and fell to the ground.
Corripio wore a mask, a hoodie over his head, and dark clothing, so the videos did not show his face. But investigators tracked the cab’s movements and discovered that Guzman and Corripio stopped for Subway sandwiches about 30 minutes after the shooting, prosecutors alleged. Corripio’s face was clearly visible on the restaurant footage, which showed he was wearing the same clothing as the killer, prosecutors claimed.
Corripio, now 20 years old, was on juvenile probation for two carjackings and a stolen motor vehicle case when he killed the girl. Prosecutors said he identified himself as a Latin King at least twice during previous arrests.
