What do you get for killing a 6-month-old baby in a car crash after stealing a car and speeding away? In most red states, you’d be in serious criminal trouble, facing at least some sort of manslaughter charge and potentially even depraved-heart murder.
Not in Chicago, where all that will get you, apparently, is a misdemeanor trespassing charge. There, two “teens” stole a car and sped away from the scene of their first crime. Then they blew through an intersection and plowed into a pickup truck driven filled with a Hispanic family. The resulting crash killed six-month-old Cristian Uvidia and injured the three others in the truck, his 34-year-old mother and two sisters, ages 15 and 7. The two teens were each charged with just one misdemeanor count of criminal trespassing.
The identities of the “teens” have not yet been released, so details about them, such as their names and race, are not yet known. What is known is that they are 14 and 17. More charges could be added as the investigation continues, though that has not yet happened.
Had they been charged with manslaughter, it, in Illinois, carries a sentence of 2 to 5 years, fines up to $25,000, and four years probation. By contrast, criminal trespass is usually considered a Class B misdemeanor and is punishable by a jail sentence of up to six months and a maximum fine of $1,500.
Local resident Shawn Walker, who caught the horrific crash on surveillance video, told Fox News 32, “The baby wasn’t breathing, so we started doing CPR. My main thing was so we could get a pulse back into the baby.” The video of the crash shows the stolen car careening down the residential street at a breakneck speed before plowing into the truck at an intersection and sending it spinning out of control. The truck then slams into one of the trees lining the residential street. Watch it here:
A GoFundMe created for Cristian’s family to help pay for his funeral says, “On Sunday April 16, our friend Paola Uvidia and her 3 children were hospitalized after being struck by a stolen Hyndai on Washington and Kostner around 5pm. The 6 month old baby boy, Christian Eviel Uvidia, had the most serious injuries who passed away the next morning at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County after suffering a brain hemorrhage from the car crash. We are raising funds for the funeral and memorial of Christian Eliel Uvidia to support our friends Paola Uvidia and Christian Uvidia, father of the child, in their time of grief. We thank you all for your help and support. God bless you.”
Similarly, Annelisse Rivera, the boy’s aunt, told CBS Chicago, “Our lives were impacted completely forever. The joy of our life was taken. His life was priceless. The fact that his life was taken in one second for somebody that was like looking for a stolen car as if his life amounted to a price of a car.”
Mocking the typical media narrative about such events, one commenter on Twitter said, “These were just students taking a study break, mistook this vehicle for their car, and then experienced a muscle spasm that caused the diver to press on the accelerator and careen down residential streets at 90 mph. Nothing to see here.”
Featured image credit: GoFundMe
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