The family of the late Arturo Cantu Jr. may finally get some sense of closure.
They learned at a July 8 hearing that the alleged gunman in his 2024 murder has been offered a plea deal by the state.
Under the deal, Anthony Calderon, charged with first-degree murder, would be sentenced to 30 years in prison instead of life.
The family will learn whether he accepts the offer at a hearing scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Aug. 7 in Room 101 at the Bridgeview Courthouse before Associate Cook County Circuit Court Judge Margaret Ogarek.
The family wants Calderon to spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of parole.
“A life for a life,” said Carolina Pacheco, Cantu’s younger sister.
Cantu was shot in the parking lot outside his apartment building in the 7300 block of West 79th Street in Bridgeview around 5 a.m. on May 15, 2024, as he walked to his vehicle to head to work.
Calderon is accused of firing the shots.
The night before the shooting, according to court records, Cantu’s girlfriend, Agnieszka Rydzewski, texted a message to the accused: “time to shine, babe.”
Rydzewski has been charged with solicitation to commit murder. She and Cantu had dated for several years and were living together at the time of his death.
Rydzewski and Calderon worked together at a McDonald’s in Bridgeview, where they began a sexual relationship and, according to prosecutors, plotted Cantu’s murder.
One possible motive: a $25,000 life insurance policy Rydzewski helped Cantu obtain in March 2024.
After the status hearing, Carolina Pacheco expressed frustration as she walked to her car.
“Thirty years? Not enough,” she said.
At the hearing, neither Calderon nor Rydzewski made eye contact with the family. Both had their hair pulled back in ponytails. Rydzewski wore blue Department of Corrections coveralls; Calderon wore tan overalls.
“We’re not so sure about her,” Pacheco said of Rydzewski’s fate. “What has she done with her life other than making my family very miserable?”
Pacheco said she never warmed to Rydzewski when they first met. “My brother was very vulnerable and she took advantage of that.”
Cantu met Rydzewski shortly after his divorce, Pacheco said. As a single mother, Pacheco said she is reluctant to date again “because it’s so hard to trust anybody” after what happened to her brother.
Pacheco said she will never forget the pain in the eyes of her mother, Diana Pacheco, “when she had to go to the coroner’s office to identify my brother’s body.”
When asked about Calderon, Diana Pacheco said, “I think he’s going to take the 30 years, but I’m still not satisfied. We want Agnes to get 20 to 25 years. What are they going to do if she gets out when he gets out? Plot someone else’s murder?”
Adding to the family’s frustration, Diana discovered that the driver’s side front bumper of her truck had been hit and damaged in the parking lot while she was in the courtroom.