CHICAGO - With her second attacker sentenced to a lengthy prison term, Esperanza Medina says she's transcended the vicious acid attack that's marked her for life.
"Justice is done, now I can go forward," she said Wednesday at the Criminal Courts Building after Maria Olvera-Garcia, a mother of five, was sentenced to 42 years in prison. "I am very happy and relieved I can continue without any ghosts following me."
Medina, 50, was headed to her job as a social worker in July 2008 when teens doused her with battery acid, severely burning a quarter of her body. The assault left Medina unemployed and permanently disfigured with thick white and red scars across her face, neck, chest and arms.
Separate juries convicted Olvera-Garcia, 37, and her former mother-in-law, Ofelia Garcia, 61, in September of plotting the assault after a boyfriend ended his relationship with both women to live with Medina.
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Garcia was sentenced on Monday to 44 years in prison. Both women faced a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison for heinous battery.
Prosecutors alleged that Olvera-Garcia staked out Medina's home and drove the teens to her neighborhood the day of the attack.
Olvera-Garcia's lawyer, Michael Holzman, told the judge his client played "a supporting role" in the scheme.
As she did at Monday's sentencing for Garcia, Medina's daughter read a statement written by her mother, who was concerned she would be unable to speak without being overcome by emotion.
"I never thought my life would change so much in just seconds," said Lissette Medina, reading from her mother's statement. "I had so many dreams still to achieve, but they were broken down."
After the assault, Medina moved back in with her elderly mother, went through multiple skin graft surgeries and had to relearn how to eat and walk. At one point, the pain and depression overwhelmed her so much that Medina said she tried to commit suicide.
Olvera-Garcia sat in a blue jail jumpsuit beside her attorney as she listened to the statement. Her face remained expressionless.
But unlike Garcia on Monday, Olvera-Garcia apologized numerous times to Judge Nicholas Ford before he imposed sentence.
"I never expected this to happen," she said in Spanish with a translator by her side. "I cried watching the news. I cried hoping Esperanza did not die."
Both women are expected to serve 85 percent of their sentence - 35 years for Olvera-Garcia and 37 years for Garcia.
