Tia Brewer was sentenced on February 4, 2025, to 40 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for the 2018 murder of 18-year-old Luis Guerrero in West Chicago. The Tia Brewer sentence was handed down by DuPage County Judge Brian Telander after a four-day hearing in which prosecutors had asked for natural life. Brewer was 16 at the time of the killing and 22 at sentencing.1
How the 40 Years Breaks Down
Telander imposed two consecutive sentences: 34 years for first-degree murder, to be served at 100 percent, and 6 years for aggravated kidnapping, a Class X felony, to be served at 85 percent. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of natural life.
DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin called the killing one of the worst he had seen. “The unconscionable degree of depravity exhibited by Tia Brewer and her co-defendants in this case as they strangled, beat, stabbed and lit on fire Luis Guerrero is beyond comprehension,” Berlin said. “In my thirty-seven years as a prosecutor, I would be hard-pressed to recall such a vicious, gruesome murder of an innocent man.”
The Guilty Plea
Brewer pleaded guilty on November 1, 2023, to one count of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated kidnapping. She had originally been charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery, and concealment of a homicidal death. She was prosecuted as an adult under Illinois law; the specific transfer mechanism is not detailed in available records.
What Brewer Did
Prosecutors established that Brewer and three others had planned Guerrero’s killing for about a month. In the early hours of August 14, 2018, Brewer lured Guerrero to the West Chicago Public Library, where codefendant Francisco Alvarado ambushed him from behind with a belt around his neck. Brewer and Alvarado stabbed and punched him while Saul Ruiz held him down in the parking lot.
The group drove Guerrero in a Jeep Cherokee to a fire pit at 1325 Joliet Street, continuing to beat and stab him as he begged to be taken to a hospital. After he lost consciousness, a fourth defendant, Jesus Jurado-Correa, arrived with gasoline. Alvarado and Brewer poured it on the victim and set him on fire. When Guerrero regained consciousness and tried to flee while burning, the defendants beat and stabbed him again, dragged him back, and set him on fire a second time. Some accounts say they also ran him over with the Jeep. An autopsy found more than a dozen stab wounds, strangulation, and blunt force injuries consistent with being struck by a vehicle.
The Motive Brewer Claimed
Brewer told investigators the killing was “payback” for a sexual assault she said Guerrero committed during a previous romantic relationship between them. Berlin said authorities had no record of any complaint or report of sexual assault filed by Brewer. She was dating Alvarado at the time of the murder.
How the Codefendants Were Sentenced
The four defendants were sentenced over several years, and the gap between those who cooperated and those who did not is wide.
- Jesus Jurado-Correa pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, a Class 1 felony, in exchange for his cooperation, and received 15 years.
- Saul Ruiz, originally charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in exchange for cooperation, and received 10 years.
- Francisco Alvarado pleaded guilty on November 9, 2022, to first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping, in exchange for his cooperation. He was sentenced on August 20, 2025, by Judge Telander to the same 40-year structure as Brewer: 34 years for murder at 100 percent and 6 years for aggravated kidnapping at 85 percent, consecutive. He received credit for seven years served in the DuPage County jail.
At Alvarado’s sentencing, Berlin said “the final chapter in the prosecution of those responsible for the gruesome murder of Luis is now complete.”