Federal prosecutors have indicted two alleged gang members in the murder of a teenage National Guardsman in 2021 — after Chicago’s notoriously soft-on-crime state attorney declined to press charges.
Gary Robertson, 40, and Joseph Matos, 41, are accused of gunning down 19-year-old Chrys Caravajal on July 3, 2021, in a drive-by shooting meant to increase their positions in the Milwaukee Kings street gang, according to a recently unsealed indictment.
Both were charged with racketeering and firearm offenses “for allegedly murdering” Caravajal, the US Attorney’s Office said.
Matos had been identified as a suspect soon after the deadly shooting — but Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx claimed there was insufficient evidence to file murder charges, despite desperate pleas from the dead teen’s family.
“How many more lives need to be taken for the correct action to be made?” Carvajal’s sister Jennifer Ramirez said at the time while demanding “justice,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
“We are living in a war zone, and no one seems to defend us.”
Caravajal was just a week shy of his 20th birthday and at a pre-July 4th party when he was gunned down while getting something from his car. He was found lying on the sidewalk with gunshot wounds to the back and abdomen, police said at the time.
“My brother’s life was taken by a coward,” his sister said at the time.
“This coward did not know my brother. He did not even speak to my brother. He simply saw an opportunity to kill and shot with no remorse whatsoever,” she said.
Her brother had just finished basic training and “was working to become a … police officer, his sister told WTTW a year after his killing.
“He was going to serve and protect your city. The least you could do is bring justice.”
Foxx had said evidence was “insufficient to meet our burden of proof to file murder charges,” a spokesperson for her office told the Chicago Sun-Times.
“As prosecutors, we have both an ethical and legal obligation to make charging decisions based on the evidence, facts and the law,” the spokesman said.
Roberson was arrested last month and has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was ordered to be held in federal custody pending trial, according to the indictment.
Matos is not in custody but a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
The indictment against Roberson and Matos does not provide any additional details about the shooting.
The Milwaukee Kings crime organization operates on the North Side of Chicago and engages in narcotics trafficking and other violence, including murder, to maintain power over its territory, according to the indictment.
