For the first time in months, the two people charged with the murder of a Bridgeview man were reunited Wednesday morning.
But it was not a warm and tender moment. Far from it.
There were no flowers. No warm embrace. And, certainly, no kiss between the two lovers who allegedly conspired to kill Arturo Cantu Jr.
Instead, the two stood before a judge – as four sheriff’s deputies stood behind them – in Room 101 at the Bridgeview Courthouse for another status hearing.
Each wore Department of Corrections clothing issued to prisoners of the Cook County Jail at 26th Street and California Avenue in Chicago, where they’ve resided since May.
He wore a blue DOC jacket over his tan coverall.
She wore a long-sleeved white T-shirt beneath her blue DOC coverall. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail.
Calderon, 21, is charged with first-degree murder after he allegedly shot Cantu early May 15.
Cantu, 39, was leaving for his job at WeatherTech in Bolingbrook.
He was shot to death in the parking lot of the apartment near the corner of South Oketo Avenue and 79th Street that he shared with Rydzewski.
Rydzewski, 34, is charged with solicitation to commit murder for her role in the death of her boyfriend of six years.
According to prosecutors at a previous hearing, she told Calderon “time to shine, babe,” the night before Cantu was shot to death.
She and Calderon had met while working at a McDonald’s in Bridgeview and began having an affair, according to prosecutors.
After learning Wednesday that more discovery is needed by the state’s attorney’s office and the public defender’s office, Cook County Associate Judge Margaret M. Ogarek set the next status hearing for 9:30 a.m. March 26.
Rydzewski and Calderon, both said “in person” when Ogarek asked if they preferred that or Zoom. Some of Cantu’s family will be there, too, again sitting in the front row.
Mother Diana Pacheco, sister Carolina Pacheco and aunt Delia Dominguez have faithfully attended every hearing since Cantu was shot to death.
“It’s just dragging out,” Diana said, noting it will soon be nine months since her son’s death.
Her sister, Dominguez, said, “I have a lot of thoughts. I’ll keep them to myself. I don’t want to get arrested.”
The ordeal has been especially hard on Diana, Dominguez said.
“She shut herself off from everything. She doesn’t get involved with the family. They invite her to parties. She stays home,” Dominguez said.
“She just stays to herself in the house. That’s all she does. … I understand her. She’s a mother. I’m a mother of five,” Dominguez added. “It’s going to take time. It’s a process.”
That process has weighed heavily upon the entire family, Diana said. The night before each hearing, Diana gets nervous and tense.
“I always have that feeling they’re going to go loose (perhaps on) good behavior,” Diana said.
Dominguez does “a lot of praying the night before.”
She’s hoping that in March a date will finally be set for the trial to begin.
In the meantime, the family does have some good news.
The eldest of Cantu’s three children recently gave birth to a baby boy, which would have been his second grandchild.
“All healthy. Everything is fine,” Diana, 57, said.
Cantu would be thrilled to have his first grandson, she said. Cantu died before he and the family learned about his daughter’s pregnancy, Diana said.
Diana was surprised that when he left the five-minute status hearing, Calderon flashed a smile toward his grandmother, Louise Robison, step-grandfather Ronald Robison, both of Bedford Park, and two former co-workers in the audience.
“I noticed he smiled at them,” Diana said. “How do you stand there, how do you get to laugh at somebody, knowing what you did?”
At a previous hearing, assistant state’s attorney Naheda Zayyad said Rydzewski told Calderon she was “unhappy with the victim” and that she “didn’t want to be with him.”
His mother, aunt and sister all said Rydzewski could have instead simply broken up with Cantu if that was the case.