Three teenagers were indicted on federal charges Tuesday after allegedly stealing an SUV at gunpoint last year in Edgewater on the North Side.
The men face a maximum sentence of life in prison for brandishing a gun during the carjacking and another attempted carjacking, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
Jamar Jarvis, 18; Raynell Lanford, 19; and Jamaal Ashsaheed, 19; all of Chicago, were charged with conspiracy and using a firearm during a crime of violence, prosecutors said. Javion Bush, 19, also of Chicago, was also charged with assisting the men after the carjacking.
On Oct. 18, Jarvis brandished a Kel-Tec P-11 semiautomatic handgun while Lanford, Ashsaheed and other unknown suspects surrounded the driver of a 2006 Lexus RX 400h, according to prosecutors. The group then took the SUV and drove it to the BP gas station at 1221 S. Wabash, where they filled up the tank and bought a gas can.
Prosecutors allege that Bush later took steps “to hinder and prevent the apprehension, trial, and punishment” of the three men.
Jarvis, Lanford and Ashsaheed also tried to carjack a 2010 Acura TSX the previous evening in the Uptown neighborhood, prosecutors said. In that incident, Lanford displayed a handgun while he and his alleged accomplices unsuccessfully tried to commandeer the car.
In addition to facing life in prison for using a gun during the two incidents, the trio faces up to 15 years for the carjacking and attempted carjacking and five more years for the conspiracy charge, prosecutors said.
Bush faces over seven years in prison, prosecutors said.
All four men are being held at the Cook County Jail. Their arraignments in federal court in Chicago have not yet been scheduled.
