Teen convicted in slaying of soccer star

• Reprints

Updated: January 29, 2012 2:33AM

YORKVILLE — An 18-year-old Aurora man could spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of murdering a high school soccer player in 2009.

After three hours of deliberations late Friday night, a Kendall County jury found Zachary Reyes, 500 block of Webster Street, Aurora, guilty of murder and two counts of attempted murder.

Prosecutors said at 12:51 a.m. Dec. 20, 2009, Reyes shot at a car he believed was full of rival gang members driving near Douglas and Long Beach roads.

Jason Ventura, 16, was hit by multiple gunshots and died at the scene. An 18-year-old man was also wounded in the shooting.

After the 11 shots were fired, Ventura’s car rolled into the front yard of a home near Long Beach and Sonora roads, in the Boulder Hill subdivision outside Oswego’s city limits.

Kendall County state’s attorney Eric Weis said Ventura was not a gang member, but had agreed to give a ride to some other teens who were in a gang, Weis said. The teens in Ventura’s car flashed gang signs at the other car, which instigated the shooting, Weis said.

After broadcasting a description of the second car, an Oswego officer was able to make a traffic stop near Broadway and Evans Avenue in Aurora, police said. Multiple people in the car — including Reyes — were held for questioning. Reyes and another man were charged in the murder.

Ventura was a junior at East Aurora High School who played on the school’s varsity soccer team. He was the middle of three boys.

“Everybody who knew him, what they remember most, is his smile,” his older brother, Emmanuel Ventura, said at the time. “It’s like his trademark. It’s like an everlasting impression that he left.”

Before he was killed Ventura had become one of the leaders on the soccer team. His coach expected him to be a senior captain and go into coaching one day. Ventura planned to play soccer in college. Friends and family said Ventura was not in a gang.

A second man, Francisco Salazar, 22, 100 block of High Street, Aurora, is still facing murder charges in Kendall County. His trial is scheduled to begin in February.

Reyes could be sentenced on March 29. Because the jury ruled that Reyes fired the shots that killed Ventura, he is eligible for an enhanced sentence. Prosecutors said Reyes faces at least 92 years in prison.