Updated 1/10/12 12:40 p.m.
A man accused of kidnapping a Riverside teenager in 2010 in order to find out where a suspected burglar lived accepted a plea deal on Jan. 4 and will now spend a long stretch in state prison.
Judge Carol Kipperman sentenced Chicago resident Steven Morado, 24, to 10 years in prison for his role in the Feb. 26, 2010 kidnapping of a Riverside teenager outside his Longcommon Road home.
Prosecutors have attempted for months to get Steven Morado to agree to a plea deal. According to someone familiar with the case, Jan. 4 was the deadline for Morado to make a decision to accept the deal or go to trial.
He had been indicted on more than 20 charges including kidnapping and battery. On Wednesday, he agreed to plead guilty to three counts of kidnapping and one count of aggravated battery.
He was sentenced to seven years for the kidnapping convictions and three years for the battery conviction. The prison sentences will run consecutively, Kipperman ruled.
Morado’s uncle, who was also charged with kidnapping and other offenses in connection with the February 2010 incident, took his case to trial and received a much harsher sentence.
Trini Morado, 40, was sentenced to 18 years in prison in June 2011 for his role in plotting and carrying the scheme to find the person he suspected burglarized a family member’s Riverside apartment in early 2010.
Both men went to Riverside on Feb. 26, 2010 after learning the identity of a teenager suspected of burglarizing a relative’s apartment, which was located on East Burlington Street in Riverside.
They enticed one Riverside teen into their car in order to get information on the alleged burglar’s whereabouts and then kidnapped a second teenager, who reportedly had contact information on the alleged burglar.
Trini Morado grabbed the second teen as he walked out of his home, shoved him into the green Nissan Maxima he and Steven Morado drove to Riverside and then threatened the boy with harm unless he told them where the alleged burglar lived.
The boy eventually gave the Morados a cellphone number, which they called to set up a phony drug buy. They then went to the 200 block of East Burlington Street to exact revenge on their suspect.
The suspected burglar came out of his house with some marijuana and got in the Morados’ vehicle to complete the drug deal. But as soon as the teen got in the car, the Morados attempted to drive away with the teen.
However, he jumped out and ran. Steven Morado hit the teen in the back with a hammer during the ensuing chase and threw the hammer through the kitchen window of the teen’s townhouse.
Police arrived on the scene a short time later, where they arrested both Morados.
Steven Morado is now in custody at Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet. However, legal proceedings are not over for Trini Morado, who remains in Cook County Jail awaiting trial on a separate case. After posting bond in the Riverside case, the Morados were accused of stalking a Chicago police officer and his family.
In November 2010, Chicago police arrested both Trini and Steven Morado after they were identified as the two people stalking a police officer and his family. The officer had arrested a relative of theirs in April of 2010.
Both Morados have been in jail since that arrest. Trini Morado remains held without bond in Cook County Jail awaiting another court date related to the stalking case.
