Joliet Triple Murder: Flare Gun Shooter Andy Cerros Sentenced

Joliet IL

14 January, 2021

6:00 PM

Description

JOLIET, IL — Andy Cerros was 17 years old when Joliet police arrested him for the flare gun deaths of three Joliet residents: Regina Rogers, 28, her 11-month-old daughter Royalty Rogers and Jacquetta Rogers, 29. Their two-story house on North Center Street went up in flames, and they died during the overnight blaze on June 3, 2017. Now 21 years old, Cerros was sentenced Thursday to 32 years of imprisonment by Will County Circuit Judge Vincent Cornelius. Will County State's Attorney spokeswoman Carole Cheney said that Cerros pleaded guilty to his first three counts of murder. Other felony charges were dropped under the plea bargain. At the time of his crime, Cerros lived in the 700 block of Morgan Street, and he was a Joliet street gang member, according to courtroom testimony. In 2019, co-defendant Eric Raya pleaded guilty to the much lesser included offense of obstruction of justice as well as an unrelated charge of aggravated battery. "The bottom line I want everyone to know is that Eric Raya, at no point in time, was responsible for the deaths of the three victims," remarked downtown Joliet criminal lawyer Jeff Tomczak of The Tomczak Group during a 2019 interview. Joliet Patch previously reported that the intended target of the near west-side arson was Joliet gang member Rakeem "Rocky" Venson, formerly of Milwaukee, who managed to escape the fire while everyone else inside the house perished. In 2019, Tomczak said that his client Raya, then 18, was actually asleep inside of the Chrysler Pacifica of co-defendants Cerros and Manuel A. Escamilla, then 18, when Raya was suddenly awakened from his slumber by the pops of the flare gun being discharged. "He saw Andy Cerros holding the plastic flare gun. He also heard Andy Cerros admitting that he had shot the flare through the second story of the residence," Tomczak said. After the deadly arson, Escamilla and Cerros went and hid the flare gun to make sure the Joliet Police did not find it, Tomczak explained. The gun was never recovered by police. The North Center house on Joliet's near west side where the triple homicide occurred has since been demolished. Now that two codefendants have been sentenced, the only case awaiting trial involves Escamilla, now 21. The resident from the 100 block of Joliet's Hunter Avenue has been locked away from community since his arrest by Joliet police detectives back on June 9, 2017. Manuel Escamilla of Joliet lives on Hunter Avenue. Mugshot via Will County Jail This Joliet house where three people died on June 3, 2017 has since been demolished. Image via John Ferak/Patch