Two Violent Carjackings in Chicago Lead to 18-Year Federal Prison Sentence
CHICAGO — A man has been sentenced to more than 18 years in federal prison for violently carjacking two vehicles in Chicago.
KASHIF DUKES, 29, of Chicago, took the vehicles at gunpoint in 2017 and 2018. In the first carjacking, Dukes took a Mercedes-Benz sedan in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood on Sept. 10, 2017. Dukes pressed a gun to the driver’s chest and said words to the effect of, “get the [expletive] out the car or I’m going to shoot the [expletive] out of you.” Dukes then took the driver’s cellphones, cash, and wallet and sped off in the Mercedes. The second carjacking occurred on July 21, 2018, in the Little Italy neighborhood on Chicago’s Near West Side when Dukes and accomplices took a Chevy Equinox from a woman and her two children and granddaughter. The family was dropping off food at a friend’s house for a barbecue that evening. The carjackers brandished firearms and shouted at the women to “get the [expletive] out of the car” and to “get the baby and get the [expletive] out.”
Dukes pleaded guilty to the first carjacking and was convicted by a jury in 2021 of the second carjacking. The jury also convicted Dukes of federal firearm charges. U.S. District Judge Jorge L. Alonso on Tuesday imposed a sentence of 18 years and three months in federal prison.
The sentence was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Christopher Amon, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and Larry Snelling, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department.
“Defendant traumatized the victims and placed them in fear of their lives,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jasmina Vajzovic argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “The community as a whole – victims, witnesses, society, and perpetrators – needs to know that the federal system takes the crime of carjacking seriously and will justly punish those who choose to spend their time terrorizing others.”
