An East Chicago man was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison for punching a man who fell, hit his head and died after being hospitalized for nearly nine months.
Lloyd Gatlin, 29, never meant to kill Martin Cabrera Cruz, defense lawyer Lonnie Randolph II said.
Court records allege Gatlin hit Cabrera, 58, of Chicago, after accusing him of raping a woman. During their altercation, Cabrera denied it.
East Chicago Police were called just before 8 p.m. on Aug. 18, 2021, to the 4500 block of Magoun Avenue where they found Cabrera “partially conscious” behind a building. He was taken to St. Catherine Hospital before he was transferred to a hospital in Chicago.
Martin’s cause of death was due to complications from a “remote blunt force trauma” from the assault, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner. His death was ruled a homicide.
Gatlin signed a plea agreement on Aug. 7 admitting to aggravated battery, a Level 3 felony. He faced up to nine years under the deal.
He was first charged with aggravated battery and battery resulting in serious bodily injury in September 2021. Prosecutors added a murder charge after Cabrera died in May 2022.
Randolph said he believed the case had conflicting evidence.
He displayed a document in court where one woman told a public defender’s office investigator that a “Hispanic man” called Gatlin a racial slur and punched him first.
Randolph also noted he hadn’t gotten medical records back from the University of Chicago or Holy Cross Hospital hospice. At the latter, a nurse alluded to Chicago Police that “natural causes” contributed to his death.
However, facing 87 years, he advised Gatlin it was too risky to go to trial.
“The question is whether he should have been charged with murder in the first place,” he said.
Without medical records from two hospitals, Randolph said prosecutors had a “duty” to investigate further but stopped short of calling the murder prosecution unethical.
He asked for Gatlin to avoid prison with a mix of time served and probation.
Deputy Prosecutor Jacquelyn Altpeter said Randolph was just quoting “something a nurse said.”
They upgraded the case to murder only after the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office found the death was caused by blunt force trauma.
The new aggravated battery plea was reached after witnesses told conflicting stories, she said. A different woman said the punch was unprovoked.
She asked for nine years in prison.
Gatlin apologized in court, saying he took the plea deal to get back to his kids.
After reviewing the evidence and cause of death, Judge Salvador Vasquez said it was clear that the punch led to his death, though Gatlin never intended to kill Cabrera.
“This is a proper plea,” he said.
mcolias@post-trib.com
