COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — New DNA evidence has linked a Pullman teen to the fatal Englewood crash that killed a mother of five in December 2015, prosecutors said Thursday.
Trevante Reed was fleeing police Dec. 12, 2015, when he blew past a stop sign, crashed a stolen minivan into a crowded SUV and killed 37-year-old Maria Carreon-Adame near 71st and Carpenter streets, according to authorities.
Reed was 16 at the time.
He appeared Thursday at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, where he was charged as an adult with reckless homicide. Assistant State's Attorney Mike Golden said three juveniles were inside the stolen minivan at the time of the crash — but DNA testing recently revealed Reed to be the driver.
According to prosecutors, Reed, now 17, has prior juvenile convictions for possession of a stolen motor vehicle and residential burglary.
"I understand he is young," Cook County Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil said in court, "but I have to take into consideration his background and what he was doing at the time of the crash. ... Bail will be set at $250,000."
According to Golden, police first noticed Reed when he drove the stolen Dodge Caravan past a stop sign near 65th and Morgan streets. Officers ran the license plate and realized the minivan had been reported stolen the day before.
Reed refused to pull over for police, prosecutors said, and soon led officers in both marked and unmarked cars on a South Side chase.
Reed is accused of blowing past several stop signs before eventually crashing the Caravan into a Dodge Durango that had been traveling east on 71st Street. There were 11 passengers in the Durango at the time, Golden said.
Carreon-Adame died at Stroger Hospital from injuries sustained in the crash, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
The ten other passengers were sent to local hospitals for "various injuries," Golden said. The most serious included a spinal fracture and a broken leg. All 10 survived.
Police saw three minors jump out of the Caravan and try to run away, according to prosecutors. Officers arrested all three, but none of the boys admitted to driving the minivan.
Investigators swabbed the inside of the minivan — including its steering wheel and airbags, Golden said. DNA testing recently revealed Reed to have been the driver. The tests, which led to delays in filing charges, excluded Reed's cohorts, prosecutors said.
According to an online fundraiser for Carreron-Adame's family, the woman was a mother of five who had relatives visiting from Mexico for the holidays.
Police do not release booking photos of minors, even when they are charged as adults.
