By JORDAN OWEN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
Alberto Gaytan | Illinois Dept. of Corrections
A man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for stabbing his ex-girlfriend, Maria Gonzalez, to death outside her Northwest Side home on Thanksgiving Day in 2013.
Alberto Gaytan pleaded guilty to murder on Wednesday before Judge Erica Reddick, according to Cook County court records.
Gaytan stabbed his the 39-year-old Gonzalez about 5 a.m. Nov. 28, 2013, in the 4800 block of North Moody, authorities said.
Gaytan and Gonzalez had previously dated and had a four-year-old child together, according to court documents. About two months before her death, she had moved out of their home and into a basement apartment on Moody Avenue.
Gaytan had threatened to kill her if she left him for another man, and she did not tell him her new address, prosecutors said.
But on that Thanksgiving morning, Gaytan approached Gonzalez outside her new home as she left for work, authorities said. He grabbed her as she was about to get into her car and threw her to the ground, then stabbed her 11 times in the face and body.
One of the lacerations across her neck was almost deep enough to decapitate her, prosecutors said.
Police found Gonzalez in the street and she was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. An autopsy confirmed she died of multiple stab and incise wounds, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Judge Reddick sentenced Gaytan to 30 years in prison, according to court records. He will receive credit for 987 days served in the Cook County Jail, and will have to serve three years of supervised release.