A Chicago man, Andrew Anania, has been sentenced to 50 years in federal prison for a series of violent crimes including kidnapping, carjacking, and firearm offenses; the hefty sentencing arrives after a jury convicted Anania for the abduction of three drivers and sexually assaulting two of them at gunpoint, as reported by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
The 29-year-old's crime spree began on February 27, 2021, when he got into a vehicle with a driver in Chicago, claimed he had a gun, and then sexually assaulted her, the woman managed to escape when the car stopped at an intersection; however, Anania continued his criminal behavior after being released on bond in a separate federal firearm case, adding to the string of felonies that culminated in the recent sentencing. U.S. District Judge Edmond E. Chang imposed the sentence on May 13, 2025, following a series of incidents that had escalated in violence over the course of mere days in early 2021.
According to court documents, Anania's first reported kidnapping occurred on March 8, 2021, when he coerced an Uber driver at gunpoint to drive from Darien, Illinois, to Chicago, where he sexually assaulted her. Just two days later, Anania, alongside accomplice Walter Moran, kidnapped another woman who was on her way to work in Cicero, Ill., forcing her, too, to drive to Chicago, where Moran opened fire in the streets before they fled in her vehicle.
Anania pleaded guilty prior to his trial for the carjacking and kidnapping in February, whereas Moran, having pleaded guilty last year, received a lesser sentence of 15 years and eight months; Judge Chang had delivered Moran's sentence earlier in April, which came just a month before Anania would learn of his fate in federal court. Anania's conviction and sentencing followed a collaborative effort of law enforcement agencies, including the Cicero, Darien, Summit, Stickney, and Chicago Police Departments, as well as the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service, as pointed out in the announcement by U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Boutros and Special Agent-in-Charge Douglas S. DePodesta.
