UPDATE: 3 sentenced to 60 years for home invasion, gang rape; victim's relative gets 23 years for helping plan crime

Elias Costello, 20, of East Chicago; Nathaniel Asbury, 23, of Hammond; and Isiah Barboza, 18, each apologized to the family and asked Lake Criminal Court Judge Samuel Cappas for mercy during a joint sentencing hearing Friday.

Cappas gave little weight to most of the mitigating factors presented by the men's defense attorneys and sentenced each of them to the maximum sentence under their plea agreements.

"The level of depravity, the callousness, the sadisticness," Cappas said. "It was horrific."

Alexis Lietz, 22, of Antioch, Illinois, was dating Costello before the home invasion July 18, 2018, at the Hammond residence where Lietz once lived with her family.

She gave her co-defendants a detailed map of the home, which included information about the location of surveillance cameras, safes, jewelry and other valuables. She drove the men to the home where she grew up and waited in a car outside for them.

Cappas sentenced Lietz to 23 years in prison for her role in the crime.

Judge: No words to express shock

Lietz's female relative, who was 19 years old at the time, was sleeping on a couch when the men entered her home with a key provided by Lietz. They wore gloves and masks and took turns pointing a shotgun at her.

Her 16-year-old brother was in an upstairs bedroom, where he hid as he listened to his sister being raped by Asbury and Barboza. At one point, Costello threatened to shoot the boy if he did not open his door.*

Costello positioned the woman and groped her before taking the shotgun, so one of his co-defendants could begin the rape, Lake County Deputy Prosecutor Nadia Wardrip said.

The 16-year-old boy alerted his mother, who turned on her home surveillance and called police. She was forced to watch the home invasion and sexual assault unfold, helpless to stop it, Wardrip said.

Twenty-two minutes after the home invasion began, Hammond police arrived and took the defendants into custody.

Costello was found hiding under a pile of clothes, "the coward that he is," Wardrip said. Barboza was caught by a K-9 as he ran from the area.

Cappas, who viewed the home surveillance video in his chambers before the hearing, said, "There's a saying, 'A picture is worth a thousands words.'"

But if given a thousands words, Cappas could not describe the shock he felt upon watching the video, he said.

'A horror movie, but in real life'

Lietz's female relative said she went through weeks where she could not sleep, lost weight and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

She had to be sedated because of mental exhaustion, and she cannot count the number of panic attacks she's suffered, she said.

"Going through having a gun to my head, not knowing if I was going to live or die, will stick with me forever," she said. 

She lost Lietz, whom she once considered her best friend, she said.

"This is the most selfish thing you've ever done, and I hope you find peace," she said.

The woman's brother said the crimes will haunt his family for years.

He cannot imagine how his sister feels, he said.

"Months after this happened, I still had to watch her walk to her car, because she was so afraid," he said.

Their mother told the men they deserved to spend most of their adults lives in prison.

"It was like watching a horror movie, but in real life," she said of the video.

Cappas told the defendants they were lucky to have received a plea agreement, because each of the men could have faced more than 90 years in prison if convicted at trial.

Wardrip, who presented the state's case alongside Deputy Prosecutor Infinity Westberg, said the plea agreements were a gift — not to Costello, Barboza or Asbury — but to the woman they sexually assaulted. 

The plea agreements spared her the trauma of going to trial, Wardrip said.

Families plead for leniency

Costello's attorney, John Cantrell, said Costello was diagnosed with schizophrenia and had been taking various medications before his life went off the rails.

Costello's father, Ray Costello, he gained custody of his son at age 14 or 15 and had been working for years to get him help. 

Wardrip said Costello was not prescribed any medications while incarcerated at the Lake County Jail, which routinely treats mental illness among inmates.

Westberg called sheriff's Sgt. Delano Scaife, who testified Costello damaged a window inside the Lake County Jail in two different cells in an attempt to smuggle in drugs and other items.

Costello set up an elaborate pulley system, and correctional officers found unknown powdery substances, burnt papers and other items in his cell, he said. Asbury had knowledge of the scheme, Scaife said.

Cappas rejected Costello's request for a second chance, saying every one of at least a dozen contacts with law enforcement as a juvenile and adult was his chance "to do the right thing."

"You lost your chance a long time ago," Cappas said. 

Barboza's father, Enrique Barboza, testified his son — who was just 15 years old at the time of the offense — had been working to finish high school and held several part-time jobs while on free on bond in the case.

Barboza was diagnosed with attention deficient hyperactivity disorder and a learning disorder as a child, his father said. 

He deeply regrets his actions, his father said.

"He has been very remorseful. He rarely gets any sleep. He's always saying how he regrets that day," Enrique Barboza said. 

Barboza was represented by attorney William Brown, who urged Cappas to show his client leniency because of his age. 

Westberg said Barboza was caught with a handgun at age 14. That same year, he fought with Hammond police after he was caught attempting to shoplift a pellet gun, she said.

"He's a wolf in sheep's clothing," she said. "Anyone can behave when they're supposed to."

'Something only monsters do'

Asbury was born with fetal alcohol syndrome and a speech impediment as a child, said his sister, Stephanie Tribett.

Despite those challenges, Asbury earned a GED and was in the process of enrolling in college when the crimes occurred, attorney Robert Varga said. 

Tribett told the family: "Sorry is an understatement."

"Nate was not raised like that. Nate knows right from wrong," she said. "My brother is not a monster."

Wardrip disagreed.

Asbury subjected the woman to "22 minutes of terror," she said.

"These are images that we will never forget as part of our job," Wardrip said of the video. "This is something only monsters do."

As Cappas concluded Asbury's sentencing, the judge noted Varga has asked what good it would do to give a young person a long prison sentence.

Cappas said he agreed with Wardrip's response to the question.

"That would be to protect society from people like you three," he said.

* Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct a previous version. Barboza was caught by a police K-9. Costello threatened to shoot the boy through a door, according to court records. The Times regrets the errors.

Gallery: Recent arrests booked into Lake County Jail