A Chicago man was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison for kidnapping three drivers, including two who were sexually assaulted, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
A jury convicted Andrew Anania, 29, on kidnapping, carjacking, and firearms charges this year, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence.
“Anania has repeatedly shown that he will not be specifically deterred by the courts; that significant sentences will not prevent him from committing crimes; and that terms of court supervision or parole will not in any way curb his criminal behavior,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros wrote in sentencing documents.
Anania kidnapped an Uber driver March 8, 2021, in Darien, and pointed a gun at her, forcing her to drive to Chicago, prosecutors said. He then made her park in an alley where he sexually assaulted her, afterward handing her anti-bacterial wipes and telling her to wipe herself to get rid of any evidence of the assault, according to court documents.
“Yes, I can make you do anything,” he at one point told her while holding her at gunpoint, according to court documents.
Two days later — he and another man, Cicero resident Walter Moran — kidnapped a woman on her way to work in Cicero, where Anania again pointed a gun at the woman and forced her to drive to Chicago, where Moran got into a shootout with people on the street, prosecutors said.
When she cried during the shootout, Anania told her to shut up “or he’d shoot her,” according to court documents. They later released her — after Anania asked Moran “what they were going to do with her” — and took her car.
Later that day, Cicero police were tracking the vehicle using its onboard OnStar, and led officers on a chase with speeds in excess of 80 mph, according to court documents. He got away from officers.
Anania had previously pleaded guilty to kidnapping a woman in her car on Feb. 27, 2021, after telling her that he had a weapon, and he later sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said. She was able to escape the vehicle when traffic stopped and she realized he didn’t have a weapon; he later crashed the vehicle.
He later looked at his March 8 victim’s social media pages and asked another person to go to her page and send screenshots of her page, along with the pages of her family members, according to court documents. He also spent time looking at a GoFundMe account she had set up in the wake of the kidnapping and assault.
After creating a letter with much of her personal information, he took photos of it on his phone. Later the same day, March 13, 2021, Ananaia was arrested.
Anania committed the offenses while awaiting trial in a separate federal firearms case and had been released on bond after the state’s attorney’s bid to keep him behind bars was denied.
In August 2017, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection with a homicide in Little Village three years earlier, according to court documents. He was released in November 2018 on parole.
Months later, in February 2019, Anania was driving in Little Village when Chicago police stopped him, and he fled on foot through neighborhoods, prosecutors said. He was arrested after a brief chase, and a firearm he had tossed into a yard was recovered.
On Oct. 14, 2021, Anania pleaded guilty to a charge for being a felon in possession of a firearm, and he was sentenced to 40 months in prison on Feb. 14, 2022.
Moran pleaded guilty to kidnapping and carjacking charges last year and was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in federal prison.