Cops 'Don't Know Who Did It' In Baby Murder Case: Lawyer

By Joseph Hosey

When the police arrested a Plainfield man and charged him with murdering a baby nearly two years earlier they really didn't know who was responsible for the child's death, attorney Joseph "Shark" Lopez told a jury Tuesday.

"They don't know who did it, and because he's the last man standing, he was charged" Lopez said in his opening statement at the trial of Santos Loza.

Loza, 33, faces up to 100 years in prison if convicted of the October 2008 murder of 8-month-old Kevion Bender.

Lopez said Loza and Kevion's mother, Sandra Sitko, met on the Internet and she started spending a few nights of the week at his townhouse in Joliet. Loza moved to Plainfield prior to his arrest in August 2010.

"This is a case of two single parents," Lopez said, telling the jury that Sitko brought both Kevion and her 5-year-old son, Dillon, with her when she spent the night with Loza. Dillon slept on a couch when he stayed at Loza's townhouse and Kevion was put to bed on the floor.

The night before Kevion died, Sitko went to work at a West Chicago McDonald's and left Loza to watch the boy. She returned from work about 11 p.m., said prosecutor Chris Koch. Sitko looked in on Kevion from a doorway but did not actually check his condition, Koch said.

Less than six hours later, Sitko discovered her son was not breathing. Loza called 911 and he and Sitko tried to revive the child. Kevion was pronounced dead at St. Joseph Medical Center.

Sitko can be heard on the 911 call screaming, "You killed my baby." But Lopez said that was only because Loza had covered the child with a blanket during the night and Sitko believed her son had suffocated.

Kevion did not suffocate. He had actually been beaten to death by Loza, Koch said.

The baby had "18 contusions and abrasions on his body, mostly on his head," Koch said, along with broken ribs and a fractured skull.

Will County Judge Sarah Jones ruled before the trial began that Loza's attorneys could make no mention of he and Sitko allegedly continuing to have sex after Kevion died up until shortly before Loza was arrested. She also forbade anyone to discuss Loza supposedly getting Sitko pregnant in April 2009.

Despite Jones' ruling, Lopez told the jury Sitko "continued to have a relationship and have sex with him for a number of months." Lopez also said Sitko's father told the police he believed she was pregnant with Loza's child.

Loza and Sitko were "texting back and forth, rendezvousing at Meijer's and Best Buy" and returning to Loza's townhouse to have sex, said Lopez, who also told the jury Sitko "wore a wire" to record her conversations with Loza.

"It didn't bear any fruit," Lopez said.

When the trial broke for lunch, Lopez cited a gag order issued by Jones in declining to comment on the start of the case.

"I can't express my opinion," Lopez said. "The judge won't let me at this point."

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