On the morning of September 4, 2005, members of an Aurora street gang were present at a party in the 600 block of Lincoln Avenue when they encountered 21-year-old George A. Caro of Aurora.
After several of the gang members questioned whether Caro was a true member of the gang and whether he had cooperated with the police in a murder investigation, they severely kicked and punched him, and beat him with a baseball bat. Aurora’s Quinton C. Moore, along with co-defendants Juan Vargas, Max M. Aguilar, Ruben Hernandez and Roman Lucio, participated in the beating. The gang members then took Caro’s shoes and shirt and left him to die.
The autopsy revealed 22 injuries to Caro’s head and face and 16 injuries to his upper body and arms, and that Caro died from blunt force trauma.
Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie L. Mosser announces that Judge Elizabeth Flood has found Moore guilty of three counts of the offense of first-degree murder (Class X felony.) Moore waived his right to a jury trial.
“Quinton Moore has been a blight on the city of Aurora and a threat to the safety of its residents since he adopted the gang life in the late 1990s,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Mark D. Stajdohar. “This conviction ensures Aurora stays safe from him for at least the next two decades. I hope George Caro’s family can find some relief in this guilty verdict. It has been a long wait.”
Caro’s murder was indicted in June 2007 as part of a multijurisdictional cold-case investigation dubbed “Operation First Degree Burn.” A special grand jury indicted more than 30 men in 22 cold case homicides investigated by the Kane County State’s Attorney, the Aurora Police Department, the FBI and the Kane County Sheriff’s Office.
Vargas, Aguilar, Hernandez and Lucio each was convicted and sentenced to prison in Caro’s murder.
Moore’s next court appearance is set for May 19, 2023 at 1:30 p.m. in Courtroom 311 for motions and sentencing. Moore faces a sentence of between 20 and 60 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Moore remains in custody at the Kane County jail.
He is already serving a 27-year prison sentence after being convicted of the offense of attempt first-degree murder.
