Murder Charges Filed Against Joliet Teenager

JOLIET, IL — The Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow has charged a 17-year-old Joliet east-side resident two days after another teenager was fatally shot in the rear parking lot of the Blue Kangaroo Laundromat.

On Monday, prosecutors charged Cristian Ortiz-Arias as an adult in connection with the weekend homicide at 606 East Cass St. Ortiz-Arias is charged with first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and one count of unlawful possession of a gun in the homicide of 17-year-old Diego Guadalupe Arriaga, whose funeral arrangements are being handled by the Delgado Funeral Chapel on Landau Avenue.

Sources told Joliet Patch that Ortiz-Arias will be the only person charged in connection with Saturday's slaying.

Joliet police found Diego's body shortly before 5 a.m. in the back parking lot for the Blue Kangaroo.

One resident took to the Joliet Police Department Facebook page over the weekend saying he heard six gunshots right around midnight. The Blue Kangaroo's back parking lot can be accessed from Jerome Avenue, which is along Henderson Street.

Monday's source told Patch that Ortiz-Arias is in police custody, and he is believed to be incarcerated at the River Valley Juvenile Justice Center on Joliet's west side.

He lives in the 600 block of Columbia Street, charges show.

The Joliet Police Department has now investigated three homicides during the first five months of 2021. All three homicides resulted in quick arrests. The March 31 homicide of 56-year-old Sonja Underwood at her house in the 200 block of Illinois Street resulted in three felony charges against her boyfriend Ben Rockett, 69.

The April 4 shooting of 18-year-old Jwaun Jones who was a passenger in a car near North Bluff Street and Western Avenue resulted in murder charges against Abraham Bibian and Paola Diaz.