The Law Offices of Kathleen Colton, Ltd.
Criminal Defense / P.O. Box 1364 / St. Charles, IL 60174
Not guilty verdict in Aurora murder trial
By Clifford Ward
Special to the Tribune
7:49 PM CDT, May 8, 2013
After deliberating about seven hours, a Kane County jury this evening acquitted an Aurora man of a 2001 street shooting.
Jurors found Arnoldo Aguilar, 27, not guilty of the murder of Brian Lambert, who was shot to death in Aurora. Aguilar burst into tears when jurors announced their verdict, his attorney, Kathleen Colton, said.
Authorities charged that he and a man named Julian Acosta were the two people in hooded sweatshirts who came running out of an alley near the intersection of Anderson and New York streets the night of May 18, 2001, and opened fire on Lambert, 26.
Witnesses Monday said they could not identify the shooters.
Lambert, a former Aurora resident who was back in town for a visit, had been at a friend’s house, and he was getting into a car to leave when the shooting took place.
The two gunmen fled, and the case remained open until 2007 when Aguilar was among those charged in the cold-case indictments of unsolved Aurora gang murders.
A gang member who was arrested in a drug sweep in 2002 implicated Aguilar, but Colton argued there was no other evidence linking him to the shooting.
“Juries want to hold people responsible, but they need to have the evidence to do it.” she said.
Acosta is awaiting trial.
