Kankakee, Illinois, Man Sentenced to 207 Months in Prison for Carjacking, Discharge of Firearm

URBANA, Ill. – A Kankakee, Illinois, man, Anycco M. Rivers, 25, of the 1100^th block of E. Merchant Street, was sentenced today to an aggregate term of 207 months’ imprisonment for carjacking and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

The sentencing follows a four-day jury trial where the government presented evidence showing that Rivers and an accomplice stole a vehicle at gunpoint and that Rivers discharged a firearm at bystanders as the men fled the scene. In finding Rivers guilty, the jury further found that he had the intent to cause death or serious bodily harm to another during his theft of the vehicle.

At the sentencing hearing, the government presented evidence demonstrating that Rivers fired the gun in a populated area near a park and baseball fields. The bullets struck several vehicles in the area of the carjacking. One image admitted at the hearing showed that a bullet fired by Rivers lodged mere inches away from a child’s car seat.

Also at the hearing, U.S. District Judge Colin S. Bruce found that Rivers’s actions recklessly created a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to another person. Judge Bruce weighed Rivers’s troubled upbringing versus the need to protect the public from his dangerous actions. In counseling against future violent behavior, Judge Bruce told Rivers, “You only get one life. You don’t want to squander it.”

At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Bruce sentenced Rivers to an aggregate term of 207 months’ imprisonment, comprised of consecutive terms of 87 months’ imprisonment for the carjacking and 120 months’ imprisonment for discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. Judge Bruce also imposed concurrent terms of supervised release – three years for the carjacking and five years for the firearm discharge. Additionally, Judge Bruce ordered Rivers to pay restitution to the victim of his crime following his release from prison.

Rivers faced statutory penalties of up to 15 years in prison for carjacking. And he faced a consecutive term of 10 years to life imprisonment for discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

The case investigation was conducted by Bourbonnais Police Department; Bradley Police Department; Kankakee Police Department; Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office; and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Springfield Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rachel Ritzer and William Lynch represented the government at trial.

Rivers’s co-defendant, Ladonta A. Tucker, 30, of the 7400th block of E. Second Street in Sun River Terrace, Illinois, is set to be sentenced on June 12, 2023, at 1:30 PM in Courtroom A of the Urbana, Illinois, federal courthouse.

The case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.