Plainfield Man Guilty of Murdering Girlfriend’s Baby Boy

By Joseph Hosey

A jury took only two hours Tuesday to find a Plainfield man guilty of murdering his girlfriend's baby.

Santos Loza, 33, could be sentenced to as long as 100 years in prison for killing 8-month-old Kevion Bender in October 2008.

The night before Kevion was found dead in the Joliet townhouse Loza was living in at the time, the child had been left in Loza's care. Kevion's mother, Sandra Sitko, had met Loza through a website less than three months prior.

Since meeting Loza, Sitko had been traveling from her home in West Chicago to his residence in Joliet about three times a week to have sex and spend the night. When she visited, Sitko brought along both Kevion and her older son, Dillon.

Loza moved to Plainfield after Kevion's death and before he was arrested in August 2010.

Loza was alone with Kevion for the first time the night before the child died. He was babysitting Kevion so Sitko could work a shift at a McDonald's in West Chicago.

Sitko discovered Kevion's lifeless body on the floor where he had been put to sleep. During the ensuing autopsy, a forensic pathologist found evidence of 35 separate injuries, including a fractured skull and broken ribs.

Sitko continued her sexual relationship with Loza for almost two years, according to defense attorneys. Sitko admitted on the stand to carrying on sexually with Loza for three months after her son's death. She explained that she kept having sex with Loza in an attempt to find out how Kevion died.

Defense attorney Joseph "Shark" Lopez mocked that contention in his closing argument, saying, "I'm going to crack the case by having sex with Santos."

"Are you kidding me?" Lopez scoffed. "Really?"

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