A 35-year-old Chicago man has received a 13-year sentence for shooting and killing a man on the Eisenhower Expressway while on bail for attempted murder. He received an additional four years for a DUI, which occurred while he was on bail for attempted murder.
According to court records, Antwan Carter paid a $10,000 cash deposit in August 2020 to be released from detention in a 2018 attempted murder case. He had been in jail for nearly two years, but a judge approved a motion to reduce his bond because of fears about the spread of COVID-19 in the Cook County Jail during the pandemic’s early days.
Ten months later, Carter and his fiancée, Ashley Hardrick, were involved in a car accident near the 1000 block of North California Avenue in Humboldt Park, drawing police notice. Witnesses reported seeing a man and a woman walking away from the wreckage. Prosecutors alleged that Hardrick called 911 about the same time to report her car as stolen. Police stopped the couple a street away.
Carter allegedly smelled of alcohol, and prosecutors stated his blood alcohol level was .130, considerably above the legal limit. During their inquiry, cops discovered that Hardrick had recently reported the crashed vehicle as stolen.
Carter was charged with aggravated DUI and dangerous driving, while his girlfriend was charged with making a false report. (She eventually got probation.)
While on bail for the attempted murder, Carter also took part in a deadly expressway shooting, investigators discovered.
Carter was driving a red Dodge Durango just after midnight on April 12, 2022, when he followed another automobile from a Harvey nightclub onto the incoming Eisenhower Expressway, prosecutors claimed. As the vehicles approached Ashland Avenue, shooters in the Durango opened fire.
The 22-year-old driver of the other automobile was shot in the head and killed. Three occupants in that vehicle were also shot and injured, while a fourth remained unhurt. Both cars collided, and video footage purportedly showed Carter and three people fleeing the Durango on Damen Avenue and hiding in neighboring alleys.
State police detectives discovered an AK-47-style rifle in Durango. Prosecutors said Carter’s fingerprint was on the front passenger door, and his DNA was detected on the rifle’s trigger and grip. Three phones were discovered in the SUV, two of which contained Carter’s DNA.
Carter pleaded guilty last week to second-degree murder in the expressway shooting. Judge Thomas Byrne imposed the 13-year prison term. In addition, Byrne sentenced Carter to four years in prison for DUI.
Carter received some good news last year when Byrne ruled him not guilty in the attempted murder case for which he was on bail at the time of the DUI and highway shooting. However, according to court records, Byrne last week declined to offer Carter a certificate of innocence in the case.
According to Illinois Department of Corrections statistics, Carter is scheduled to be released in November 2027 after serving half of his 13-year second-degree murder term.
