The sister of Chrys Carvajal, Jennifer Ramirez, left, and his mother, Lourdes Lara, hold a banner with Carvajal’s photo on it during a rally for peace at Riis Park in Chicago’s Belmont Cragin neighborhood on July 24, 2021. The 19-year old National Guard member was killed over the July 4th weekend in 2021. last month on charges of shooting and killing 19-year-old National Guard member Chrys Carvajal in Belmont Cragin on July 3, 2021. The indictment was unsealed last week.
In the case of Roberson, who is in custody and has pleaded not guilty, and Matos, who is subject to a warrant and at large, they are charged with racketeering. The drive-by murder of Carvajal they’re alleged to have committed a little after 1 a.m. as he was walking to his car to get something while attending a Fourth of July weekend party with his girlfriend was in furtherance of their gang activities, according to the May 14 indictment.
Chicago police who worked on the case were upset the state’s attorney’s office wouldn’t proceed. Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, in whose ward the killing took place, tweeted at the time that police provided local prosecutors with three eyewitnesses and video evidence, according to CWBChicago, a news site that tracks Chicago crime news. “This family deserves justice as well as the hundreds of families who have unsolved murders pending #pleasedoyourjob,” Villegas tweeted.
Indeed. From what we’re told by those with extensive courtroom and law enforcement experience fighting gangs in Chicago, this isn’t an isolated case. In Chicago — more often than people might like to admit — the feds have to intervene in what probably ought to be a locally handled prosecution if justice is to be served. These sorts of examples occurred regularly before Foxx’s time as state’s attorney as well, we’re told.