2 charged in pregnant teen's death in Illinois
CHICAGO - The suburban Chicago boyfriend of a pregnant teenager fatally shot on Christmas Day and his brother were denied bail Sunday and will remain in jail after being charged with first-degree murder in the death.
Eva Casara, whose baby survived and remains hospitalized, wasn't an intended target when an apparent robbery spiraled out of control, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Charged are her boyfriend, Anthony Lee, 16, and his brother, Diante Lamont Coakley, 21, both from Dolton, a suburb south of Chicago. It wasn't immediately clear if either Lee or Coakley had lawyers.
The 17-year-old Casara was "just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong company," Dolton Police Chief John Franklin told the Sun-Times on Saturday. Franklin said it appeared to be part of a drug deal or robbery gone wrong.
A message left with Franklin by The Associated Press was not immediately returned. It wasn't immediately clear whether Lee would be tried as an adult.\
On Sunday, Assistant State's Attorney Christina Kye offered more detail, saying that Lee, Coakley and a third brother headed out to rob someone - and Casara went along. At some point, Casara ended up in the car of the robbery target - and shots were fired at the car as it sped off, Kye said.
Kye said the intended robbery victim only understood Casara was in the car when he heard gurgling sounds behind him, then pulled over and left her. A passerby later came across Casara's body, she said.
Casara, who was 5 1/2 months pregnant, was pronounced dead early on Thursday - several hours after the Wednesday shooting. But doctors were able to save the Calumet City teen's baby.
While Casara was not the intended target in the shooting, the police chief stopped short of calling her death an accident.
"It's hard to call it an accident when you're firing a gun in the direction of people," he said.
Casara's aunt, Melody Vargas, told the Sun-Times, "She was just a victim of their stupidity, and they need to pay for it."