Sentencing for a Beach Park man convicted of first-degree murder in McDonough County likely won’t happen until next year, due to a post-trial motion objecting to a firearm sentence enhancement that would extend his time in prison.
In August, a jury found Dylan Lovato, now 25, guilty in the March 2022 shooting death of Ivan Almanza, 23, in a Macomb apartment. Almanza was shot three times in the head while sleeping in the bed of Lovato’s ex-girlfriend near the campus of Western Illinois University.
On Oct. 4, defense attorney Andrew Stuckart filed an objection to the firearm enhancement on the murder charge. Lovato faces a mandatory sentence of 45 years to natural life in prison with the firearm enhancement, per state statute.
Stuckart argues Lovato was 22 at the time of the offense, had no previous criminal history, and has suffered from substance use of cannabis and alcohol since childhood.
In addition to being dependent on cannabis and alcohol, Lovato was suffering from depression, suicidal ideation, and borderline personality disorder at the time of the murder, according to Stuckart’s objection.
Stuckart's objection asks the court to declare the firearm enhancement unconstitutional. He cites Illinois Supreme Court cases that recognize the viability of challenges to mandatory natural life sentences.
“These challenges are based in part upon medical research showing that young adult males may not have fully developed brains when it comes to judgment and impulse control at the time the offenses occurred,” Stuckart writes in the objection.
According to testimony at Lovato’s trial, he stole two guns from his father’s gun case, dressed in dark clothing, and drove four hours from the northern suburbs to Macomb in the middle of the night, before entering the apartment and shooting Almanza multiple times at close range.
Stuckart also filed a motion for a new trial on Oct. 4, alleging dozens of trial errors.
Sentencing for Lovato was initially scheduled for Oct. 22.
At a hearing Tuesday, Judge Heidi Benson set an evidentiary hearing for Dec. 3, at which a clinical psychologist will testify about a psychological evaluation of Lovato, and a motion hearing for Dec. 17.
A relative of Almanza’s appeared on Zoom throughout Tuesday’s hearing with tears in her eyes.
