Dupage Policy Journal

DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin announced that a former Villa Park man was sentenced to seventy years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for the murder of Esmeralda DeLuna, 24, his live-in girlfriend and mother of their three children. Marco-Antonio Rubio, 29, appeared at his sentencing hearing yesterday in front of Judge Ann Celine O’Hallaren Walsh, who handed down the sentence. On March 5, 2024, Rubio entered a blind plea of guilty to one count of First Degree Murder. He appeared in Bond Court on May 21, 2021, where bond was set at $3 million with 10% to apply. He has remained in custody since that time at the DuPage County Jail.

On May 19, 2021, at approximately 9:25 p.m., Villa Park police officers responded to a call of a disturbance in the 300 block of N. Princeton Drive. Upon their arrival, officers knocked on the door and heard crying coming from inside. Officers entered the residence and located two female children between three and six years old and a male child approximately one year old. Officers also found a trail of blood in the living room that led to the victim lying in the kitchen with an eight-inch butcher knife in her leg and stab wounds to her torso. The victim, later identified as Esmeralda DeLuna, was transported to a local hospital for medical attention where she was pronounced deceased early the following morning.

Following an investigation into the murder, authorities learned that on May 7, 2021, Rubio was served with an Order of Protection against him with Esmeralda DeLuna named as the petitioner that required him to move out of the Princeton address home. Additionally, authorities learned that on May 19, 2021, Rubio violated that Order of Protection and went to the Princeton address. Once at the home, Rubio broke in and stabbed DeLuna multiple times in the torso and in one of her legs. Following the murder, Rubio fled the scene but was taken into custody early the following morning while walking in Villa Park.

“On May 19, 2021," Berlin said "three young children lost their mother Esmeralda DeLuna to domestic violence.” He added: “Yesterday afternoon, the children’s father Marco Rubio received a seventy-year sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections for her brutal murder. While what essentially amounts to a life sentence behind bars cannot erase the vicious murder of a loving mother, perhaps Esmeralda’s surviving family and friends can find some measure of solace knowing justice was delivered in Esmeralda’s name.”

Berlin concluded by thanking Assistant State’s Attorneys Louisa Nuckolls, Kathleen Rowe and Michael McBride for their efforts: “This was an extremely emotional case... holding Mr. Rubio accountable for his actions.”

Rubio will be required to serve 100% of his sentence before being eligible for parole.