13 years for expressway murder committed while on bail for attempted murder case

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A 35-year-old Chicago man who shot and killed a man on the Eisenhower Expressway while he was out on bail in connection with an attempted murder case has been sentenced to 13 years in prison. While on bail for the attempted murder allegation, he was also sentenced to four more years for DUI.

In order to be released from detention in a 2018 attempted murder case, Antwan Carter made a $10,000 cash deposit in August 2020, according to court documents. A court approved a motion to lower his bond after he had been detained for over two years because of worries about the development of COVID-19 at the Cook County Jail in the early stages of the pandemic.

A automobile accident on the 1000 block of North California Avenue in Humboldt Park ten months later brought Carter and his fiancée, Ashley Hardrick, to the notice of the authorities. Witnesses claimed to have seen a woman and a man leave the crash. Prosecutors said that Hardrick reported her car stolen to 911 at about the same time. A block away, the two were stopped by police.

Prosecutors claimed that Carter’s blood alcohol level was.130, well above the legal limit, and that he smelled of alcohol. During their investigation, cops discovered the crashed vehicle had just been reported stolen by Hardrick herself.

Carter was accused of dangerous driving and aggravated DUI, while his girlfriend was accused of making a fake report. (She was ultimately placed on probation.)

While Carter was out on bail for the attempted murder, investigators found that he had took part in a fatal shooting on an interstate.

According to prosecutors, Carter was driving a red Dodge Durango just after midnight on April 12, 2022, when he followed a car from a Harvey nightclub onto the inbound Eisenhower Expressway. Gunmen in the Durango started shooting as the cars got closer to Ashland Avenue.

The driver of the other vehicle, a 22-year-old man, was fatally shot in the head. A fourth passenger in that car was uninjured, but three others were shot and injured. Both cars crashed, and video allegedly showed Carter and three others fleeing the Durango near Damen Avenue and hiding in nearby alleys.

An AK-47-style gun was discovered in the Durango by state police detectives. According to the prosecution, Carter’s DNA was discovered on the rifle’s trigger and grip, and his fingerprint was discovered on the front passenger door. The SUV also contained three phones, two of which had Carter’s DNA on them.

Carter entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder in connection with the highway shooting last week. The 13-year prison sentence was imposed by Judge Thomas Byrne. For the DUI conviction, Byrne also sentenced Carter to four years in prison.

Carter had some good news last year when Byrne ruled him not guilty in the attempted murder case for which he was out on bail at the time of the highway shooting and DUI. But according to court documents, Byrne also declined to grant Carter a certificate of innocence in the case last week.

Records from the Illinois Department of Corrections indicate that Carter will serve half of his 13-year sentence for second-degree murder before being eligible for release in November 2027.

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