Three charged in Skokie, Morton Grove carjackings, murder could receive death penalty: feds

Two men and a woman received federal indictment charges on Thursday for multiple carjackings and murders in 2020 in Chicago and suburbs, including carjackings in Skokie, Morton Grove and Berwyn.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois announced various firearm, conspiracy and carjacking charges against Edson Resendez, 22, Maverick Cela, 22, and Prezila Apreza, 23. The charges are in connection with the murder of Nabil Mahouar during an attempted carjacking in Chicago’s Dunning neighborhood on Sept. 21, 2020, and the fatal shooting of Eduardo Triano in Chicago’s North Park neighborhood during a carjacking.

The three are in law enforcement custody. Their next court date is yet to be scheduled.

Resendez and Cela were previously charged in a 2022 federal indictment for allegedly committing violent carjackings in Morton Grove and Skokie on Sept. 11, 2020. The new indictment adds Apreza as a defendant. It charges her, along with Resendez and Cela, with conspiracy and firearm offenses, as well as two other carjackings in Skokie and Berwyn.

The Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Morris Pasqual, and Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler Jr., announced the indictment Thursday via a news release.

Each carjacking in the 2022 indictment was punishable by up to 15 years in federal prison, according to the release. The firearm count against Resendez carried a minimum prison sentence of seven years and a maximum of life. The new indictment contains a notice of special findings that would make the defendants eligible for the death penalty.

An arrest does not constitute a finding of guilt.

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