Leobardo Barraza Sentenced to Life in Prison for the 1998 Kidnapping
and Murder of a Chicago-Area Woman and Her Five-Year-Old Son

St. Louis, MO: Leobardo Barraza was sentenced to life in prison on one felony count of kidnapping, which resulted in death, United States Attorney Catherine L. Hanaway announced today.

“Due to the extraordinary work of many law enforcement agencies and the trial lawyers, Ms. Eloiza and her son have finally gotten the justice they deserve,” said Hanaway.

According to court documents and testimony presented at trial, in August 1998, Barraza kidnapped Maria Eloiza and her son Jesus Ramirez, later they were both killed.  Eloiza, who was living in the Chicago suburb of Prospect Heights, told a friend that she was going to Mexico with Barraza, a former co-worker to pick up drugs and transport them to Barraza’s uncle in Detroit.  She was going to be paid $40,000 for her assistance in getting the drugs across the border and delivered to Detroit. Barraza suggested that they take her five-year-old son Jesus with them to make it appear like a family traveling. When she and her son did not return, family members reported them missing.  When police searched her room, they found a handwritten note from Eloiza saying she was going to Mexico on business with “Leo,” and if she did not return to look for her.  Barraza’s phone number was written on the note.  Police contacted him and he denied going to Mexico with her.  Witnesses at trial testified that Barraza had told them that he and a friend, Jose Hernandez, took Maria and her son to a park near St. Louis where Hernandez raped and killed Maria while he, Barraza, killed her son. In November 1998, two hunters found their skeletal remains in the woods in Stanton, Missouri. 

LEOBARDO BARRAZA, formerly of the Chicago area, was convicted in July of one felony count of kidnapping resulting in death.  He appeared today for sentencing before United States District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr.

Hanaway commended the work performed on the case by the following law enforcement officers and attorneys who spent countless hours to bring this case to trial, conviction and now the sentencing:  Detective Mark Porlier and Detective Sergeant Al Steffen of the Prospect Heights, IL Police Department; Officer Adam Sandoval of the Colorado Springs, CO Police Department; the Wheeling, IL Police Department; the Missouri State Highway Patrol; the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department; the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the U.S. Marshal’s Service; William Delaney, John Duffy and John Maher of the Cook County, IL State’s Attorney’s Office; Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Ferrara, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois; and Assistant United States Attorney Dean Hoag, who prosecuted the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri.

Co-defendant, Jose Jesus Hernandez was indicted on the same charges and is a federal fugitive.  He is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

 

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