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Family: Pontiac police framed suspect in guns case

By Tony Sapochetti and Greg Cima
tsapochetti@pantagraph.com, gcima@pantagraph.com

PONTIAC — Maribel Huerta was fighting back tears as she stood in front of a line of reporters, all with microphones set up or tape recorders in hand.

“I’m mad and sad,” she said. “I just couldn’t believe it.”

She had just come from the bond hearing Wednesday morning of her brother, Martin Huerta Jr., 15, of Saunemin, who was charged with weapons and drug felonies.

Authorities said he tried to buy six handguns from fellow student Sean Sullivan, 16, of Odell on Tuesday at Pontiac Township High School and then to sell them in a Chicago suburb for money and drugs.

“He’s not a bad kid; he’s just misunderstood,” she said. “He’s very goofy and funny, just a little lazy and has some anger issues, but what kid doesn’t?”

Her husband accused police of framing the teenager, a claim Pontiac Police Chief Dale Newsome denied.

Ryan Repiha, Huerta’s brother-in-law, said in a telephone interview that Huerta wouldn’t be involved in drug or gun sales. He said he suspected police planted the eighth of an ounce of cocaine police said they found in the teenager’s home.

Authorities said Huerta planned to use the drugs and $500 to buy the guns from Sullivan.

Martin Huerta declined to speak to police officers, Newsome said.

Repiha said he thinks a police officer was at the house as early as 9 a.m., when none of the family members were home.

“We strongly believe they planted that coke,” Repiha said.

Repiha said his brother-in-law wasn’t at school until after school officials were told Sullivan had the guns in a book bag, triggering a lockdown and search. He and Maribel Huerta, Repiha’s wife and the boy’s older sister, said she drove him to school after he missed his bus.

And he said Huerta never touched the guns.

Newsome said Huerta never did see or touch the guns because police confiscated them first, and that drugs were never planted anywhere during the investigation.

Attempts to reach Sullivan’s family were unsuccessful Wednesday.

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Maribel Huerta, of Pontiac, Ill., speaks to the media after her brother, Martin Huerta Jr., 15, of Saunemin, Ill., and Sean Sullivan, 16, of Odell, Ill., were arraigned and charged as adults in an alleged plan to sell weapons for money and cocaine. Martin Huerta Jr. and Sullivan were arrested Tuesday after six handguns were found at the Pontiac Township High School. (AP Photo/Pontiac Daily Leader, John Holaway)

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