Crime & Safety
Stable Worker Convicted of First-Degree Murder
Ruben Contreras, a former employee of Daybreak Farm Stables in Libertyville, is expected to be sentenced in June for the 2002 murder of his estranged wife.
Former Libertyville resident Ruben Contreras, 51, was convicted April 12 of the May 2002 first-degree murder of his wife, Graciala, reported the Chicago Tribune.
Authorities said Contreras, who worked and lived at Daybreak Farm Stables in Libertyville, was returning to the stables with his 2-year-old son and 34-year-old estranged wife when they got into a fight and he smothered her with his hands so no one would hear her screams and call police, reported the Tribune.
After the murder, Contreras dumped his wife's body in a nearby forest preserve and later fled to Mexico. Contreras had in the Lake County jail without bond since he was extradited back to the United States in 2008, according to the Daily Herald.
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Sentencing is scheduled for June 6.
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