Evanston Man Charged With Murder Of 15-Year-Old During Robbery

EVANSTON, IL — An Evanston man has been charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old on Chicago's North Side nearly nine months earlier.

Esteban Luvianos was found dead around 9:30 p.m. on March 17 in an alley off the 2000 block of West Farragut Avenue in the Bowmanville neighborhood, authorities said. He was shot once in the head and pronounced dead at the scene.

Prosecutors said a member of a street gang murdered the teen during an armed robbery.

Eric Gunn, 20, of the 300 block of Callan Avenue in Evanston, was arrested Friday afternoon in Lincolnwood by the Chicago Police Department's gang investigation team, police said.

Gunn is a member of the Spanish Gangster Disciples gang, according to the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.

According to prosecutors, the fatal shooting was captured by a motion-activated security camera. The video shows a white minivan pull into the alley before a man authorities say is Gunn gets out.

Luvianos retreats while Gunn appears to grab a bag from him before shooting him once in the head, prosecutors said. The gunman then jumps back into the back passenger side of the minivan.

Investigators tracked down the registered owner of the minivan, whose daughter was a key witness, prosecutors said.

The witness told police she contacted Gunn, who she knew by the nickname "Scooby," via Snapchat in an effort to buy marijuana on the night of the shooting, according to prosecutors.

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Gunn provided an address on West Farragut Avenue and the witness drove him and his brother there in her father's minivan. Seconds after Gunn stepped out of the van to meet someone in a dark jacket, the witness reported hearing a gunshot and he immediately got back in the van, according to prosecutors.

"Go, go, go," Gunn told the witness, prosecutors said. The trio then drove back to Evanston, where Gunn sold her an unspecified amount of cannabis.

Investigators got a warrant for Gunn's Snapchat account and used data from the account to place Gunn along the path of the minivan's travel as well as at the site of the shooting, according to prosecutors.

On the day of the shooting and before, Gunn's social media account had posted images of a chrome handgun with an extended magazine. According to prosecutors, a gun recovered by police in a separate incident the day after the shooting appears to be the same one shown on Gunn's account.

Prosecutors said a preliminary ballistics examination by the Chicago police crime lab also linked that gun to a shell casing found at the scene.

Luvianos was a student at Amundsen High School, just a few blocks from where he was found dead, 40th Ward Ald. Andre Vasquez told constituents after his killing.

“While we are fortunate to have one of the safest Wards in the City of Chicago, this is a painful reminder that gun violence is all too present in all our communities, and knows no political or municipal boundaries," Vasquez said.

Gunn also has two pending cases in Cook County courts, according to the state's attorney's office. He faces a felony charge of possession of controlled substance out of the Maywood Courthouse and a charge of leaving the scene of a crash pending at the Skokie Courthouse.

Cook County Circuit Judge David Navarro ordered Gunn held without bail at a bond hearing Sunday. He was due back in court Tuesday in Chicago.