Federal Indictment Accuses Three Chicago Residents of Committing Carjackings and Murders

CHICAGO — A federal superseding indictment charges three Chicago residents with conspiring to commit multiple carjackings in the city and suburbs.  The indictment also accuses them of committing a murder during an attempted carjacking and a second murder using a carjacked vehicle.

According to the indictment returned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, EDSON RESENDEZ, MAVERICK CELA, and PREZILA APREZA murdered Nabil Mahouar during an attempted carjacking in Chicago’s Dunning neighborhood on Sept. 21, 2020, and later that day used a car taken in another carjacking to fatally shoot Eduardo Triano in the city’s North Park neighborhood.

The superseding indictment renews firearm and carjacking charges filed in 2022 against Resendez and Cela for allegedly violently committing carjackings in Morton Grove, Ill., and Skokie, Ill.  The new indictment adds Apreza as a defendant and charges her, Resendez, and Cela with conspiracy and firearm offenses, as well as two other carjackings in Skokie, Ill. and Berwyn, Ill.

The superseding indictment contains a notice of special findings that would make the defendants eligible for the death penalty if convicted of the new charges.

Resendez, 22, Cela, 22, and Apreza, 23, all of Chicago, are in law enforcement custody.  Arraignments on the superseding charges have not yet been scheduled.

The superseding indictment was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert W. “Wes” Wheeler, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI.  Valuable assistance was provided by the Skokie, Ill. Police Department, Chicago Police Department, Morton Grove, Ill. Police Department, and Berwyn, Ill. Police Department.  The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cornelius A. Vandenberg and Simar Khera.

The public is reminded that an indictment is not evidence of guilt.  The defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.