People v. Lobo-Sauceda

── People v. Lobo-Sauceda ── Court: Appellate Court of Illinois Date: May 08, 2026 Category: General 2026 IL App (1st) 242021-U No. 1-24-2021 Order filed May 8, 2026 SIXTH DIVISION NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1). ______________________________________________________________________________ IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIRST DISTRICT ______________________________________________________________________________ THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Cook County. ) v. ) No. 22 CR 09081 ) ROMAN LOBO-SAUCEDA, ) Honorable ) Alfredo Maldonado, Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge, presiding. JUSTICE PUCINSKI delivered the judgment of the court. Justices C.A. Walker and Gamrath concurred in the judgment. ORDER ¶1 Held: We affirm defendant’s sentence for aggravated criminal sexual assault over his contentions that the court plainly erred by considering improper factors and that counsel was ineffective for failing to raise the issue. Under the one-act, one-crime doctrine, we vacate defendant’s criminal sexual assault and aggravated battery convictions. ¶2 Following a bench trial, defendant Roman Lobo-Sauceda was found guilty of criminal sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual assault, and aggravated battery of a pregnant person and sentenced to an aggregate term of 17 years’ imprisonment. (Defendant’s first name also appears No. 1-24-2021 as “Ramon” in the record.) On appeal, defendant argues that the court committed plain error by relying on facts unsupported by the evidence at sentencing, and that counsel was ineffective for failing to raise the issue. Defendant also contends that his convictions for criminal sexual assault and aggravated battery each violate the one-act, one-crime doctrine. We affirm in part and vacate in part. ¶3 After an incident between defendant and B.M. on July 21, 2022, defendant was charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault (720 ILCS 5/11-1.30(a)(4) (West 2022)), premised on committing aggravated domestic battery (count I) and aggravated battery to a pregnant person (count II); aggravated domestic battery by strangulation (720 ILCS 5/12-3.3(a-5) (West 2022)) (count III); and aggravated battery to a pregnant person by grabbing B.M.’s neck and face (720 ILCS 5/12-3.05(d)(2) (West 2022)) (counts IV and V, respectively). 1 The State alleged in counts I and II that defendant “committed an act of sexual penetration upon [B.M.] ***: contact between the penis of [defendant] and the sex organ of [B.M.].” ¶4 We restate the trial evidence as relevant on appeal. ¶5 B.M. testified, through a Spanish-language interpreter, that she had been in a three-year relationship with defendant, whom she identified in court, when they lived in Honduras. During that time, defendant fathered B.M.’s eldest daughter, later identified as A.L. At some point, defendant moved to the United States with A.L. In April 2021, eight years after B.M. and defendant had separated, B.M. and her daughter from another rela