A 26-year-old man has been charged after surveillance video, text messages and his internet search history allegedly connected him to the April killing of a teenager in the Forest Glen neighborhood on the Northwest Side.
Hernan Saucedo faces a count of first-degree murder on allegations he drove at least one gunman to commit the April 24 shooting of 19-year-old Christopher Andrew Kudlik, Cook County prosecutors said in court Thursday.
Early that morning, Kudlik was behind the wheel of a Jeep when he crossed paths with Saucedo’s silver SUV as they drove in opposite directions on North Cicero Avenue, prosecutors said.
Saucedo made a U-turn and accelerated to catch up to Kudlik’s Jeep, tailgating him until Kudlik made a sharp turn under a viaduct. A passenger in Saucedo’s vehicle opened fire, prosecutors said.
Kudlik was struck in the face and crashed his Jeep in the 5300 block of North Cicero Avenue, where he was pronounced dead. A passenger in his car escaped after the attack and called 911.
Prosecutors didn’t provide a motive for the shooting in court.
Prosecutors said another motorist reported seeing shots coming from a rear passenger seat in Saucedo’s SUV, but said they saw no gunfire from Kudlik’s car. A Glock handgun found next to the driver’s seat in Kudlik’s Jeep was fully loaded.
The more than two dozen shell casings recovered at the scene were determined to have been fired by two different guns, neither of which matched the gun found in the Jeep, prosecutors said.
More that 40 surveillance cameras and license plate readers tracked the movement of Saucedo’s car around the time of the shooting, including when Saucedo parked in the alley behind his mother’s home later that morning, prosecutor said.
Location records from Saucedo’s phone allegedly matched the locations where his SUV was recorded traveling that night. Prosecutors said Saucedo had been forwarded Kudlik’s address in the weeks before the shooting and searched the internet for information about the shooting multiple times afterward.
Multiple areas of Saucedo’s SUV allegedly tested positive for gunshot residue when it was searched by authorities.
Prosecutors said two other suspects are still wanted in connection with the shooting.
Saucedo is also facing a pending weapons violation in a separate case charged in May, court records show.
An attorney for Saucedo argued that prosecutors had offered no witness who could place him in the SUV at the time of the shooting and asked that he be released on bond.
Judge Kelly McCarthy granted prosecutors’ request to hold Saucedo without bail and set his next court hearing for July 5.
