Federal prosecutors have taken on a case regarding the 2021 murder of a National Guardsman in Chicago after Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office refused to charge a gang member in the killing.
The victim in the case is identified as 19-year-old National Guardsman Chrys Carvajal, who was spending time with his family in 2021 for Fourth of July celebrations on the city’s Northwest Side, CWB Chicago reported Saturday.
An image shows the young victim:
Law enforcement asked for charges to be brought in the case, but prosecutors claimed there was insufficient evidence to do so and said the officers needed to have more proof. As a result, no one was ever charged with the killing.
“He was off serving and protecting our country. And for him to come home and not even a month of him being home, you killed my brother, and my family is broken. Our hearts are broken forever,” Carvajal’s sister, Jennifer Ramirez, said days after his death:
Per the CWB Chicago report, federal prosecutors have now taken over the case. The outlet continued:
On Friday, the Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that they have charged two Milwaukee Kings gang members with racketeering and murder in connection with Carvajal’s death. One of the men charged is the same man Chicago police tried to charge with murder in 2021, according to a source.
Carvajal had stepped away from the family gathering to get something from his car around 1:20 a.m. on July 4, 2021, when someone shot and killed him in the 2200 block of North Lockwood, officials said at the time.
The following month, detectives asked prosecutors in Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to charge a then-38-year-old high-ranking Milwaukee Kings gang member with murder.
Although police reportedly had video footage, knew of eyewitnesses, and claimed the suspect’s car and phone were at the scene or nearby it when the murder occurred, those things were apparently not enough to move forward with the case.
In a press release on Friday, the United States Attorney’s Office Northern District of Illinois announced two suspects had been indicted on the federal charges:
GARY ROBERSON, 40, and JOSEPH MATOS, 41, both of Chicago, are charged with racketeering and firearm offenses in an indictment unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. The indictment accuses the pair of murdering Chrys Carvajal on July 3, 2021, for the purpose of maintaining and increasing their positions in the Milwaukee Kings street gang. Carvajal, 19, was fatally shot in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood on Chicago’s Northwest Side.
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Roberson was arrested last month and has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was ordered to remain detained in federal custody pending trial. Matos is not in custody and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
If the suspects are convicted of the murder in aid of racketeering, they could spend the rest of their lives behind bars. In addition, the death penalty would also be an option, the CWB Chicago article noted.