Venezuelan man charged with killing fellow migrant after North Side party, prosecutors say

Jose Ochoa Vasquez (Chicago Police Department, Multiplottr)

A Venezuelan man is charged with murdering another migrant following a party near Mather High School on Chicago’s North Side last summer.

Prosecutors said Jose Ochoa Vasquez rented out a party venue in the West Ridge neighborhood on the night of August 16, 2025, and the victim, 29-year-old Kevin Bolivar Quinto, was among the attendees.

At some point, Vasquez allegedly battered a woman and brandished a firearm. He later followed Quinto from the venue around 5 a.m., according to court filings. As Quinto sat in his Toyota Prius in the 5800 block of North Mozart Street, Vasquez allegedly approached and fired nine shots while witnesses looked on.

Judge James Costello wrote in a detention order that the number of shots signaled an “intent to ensure [Quinto] was killed, not wounded.” CPD officers found Quinto shot multiple times, still inside the parked Prius.

In ordering Vasquez detained pending trial, Costello said witnesses to the shooting were still alive and that Vasquez knew they were cooperating with investigators. The judge said Vasquez needed to be detained to ensure the witnesses’ safety and because Vasquez “was able to evade detection of law enforcement for nearly a year.”

Court records show Vasquez was arrested earlier in 2025 on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge, but that case was dismissed within weeks.

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